Former President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump suffered an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend, leaving Trump slightly wounded and one of his supporters dead.
However, the incident has sparked some scrutiny regarding the Secret Service security detail who were responsible for guarding Trump during the event.
Investigators have claimed that the shooter — Matthew Crooks, 20, who was quickly gunned down by Secret Service after he opened fire — had been able to climb onto the roof of a nearby building shortly after the rally began. He used that vantage point to conduct the shooting.
On Monday, News 6′s Trooper Steve analyzed the response by Secret Service agents as the shooting took place.
When the gunfire began, agents could be seen piling on Trump to protect him.
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“You see (agents) on the side, running up. There are three agents physically already on top of President Trump,” Trooper Steve said. “More agents are going to come here. This is the ‘body team...’ The president probably knows these men and women’s first name, guaranteed.”
According to Trooper Steve, several criticism levied at the agents’ response claim they took “so long” to get Trump off of the stage.
“That’s really not the case,” he rebutted. “He’s been shot. They’ve noticed it. What are they doing? They’re making sure that he’s OK. There’s a physical assessment taking place top to bottom.”
Next, the Counter Assault Team — “CAT” for short — walks onto the stage to determine whether everything is OK. But this is where Trooper Steve said he had a bit of concern.
Agents could be heard on video saying, “Move,” though the agents on Trump don’t move from that spot on the stage. Instead, released audio shows that there’s yelling taking place.
Eventually, though, Trump can be seen getting up to his feet.
“What are they doing, though?” Trooper Steve asked. “They are making themselves bigger... This agent right here, hands are up. They put it in front of President Trump’s face, making sure that he’s a small target. They want to provide cover, not concealment.”
The agents then move Trump to an open vehicle to get him away from the scene, though a couple of agents can bee seen looking “disheveled.”
“Very confused here — the gun was not unholstered, and then she unholsters,” Trooper Steve explained while pointing at an agent in the video. “Then, she’s trying to put the gun back in, can’t, and then it’s back out. Same thing with this agent here. Just a lot of confusion it seems like outside of the actual body team.”
After pouring through the video, Trooper Steve states, “It’s pretty clear: there’s still a lot of unanswered questions.”
An investigation is underway to determine how Crooks was able to get on the roof so close to the rally.
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