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full screen Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was subjected to an assassination attempt on Saturday. Photo: Gene J. Puskar/AP/TT
Criticism of the Secret Service is growing after the attempted assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in the state of Pennsylvania.
Only after the shots were fired was the 20-year-old shooter discovered on a roof of a building just outside the cordoned-off area where Donald Trump held his rally.
The roof from which the suspected perpetrator shot had been pointed out by the Secret Service as “vulnerable” in the days before the campaign meeting, reports NBC News, citing sources within the Secret Service.
– Someone should have been on the roof or secured the building so that no one could get on the roof, says a former Secret Service employee to the television channel.
An eyewitness tells the BBC that he saw a gunman climb onto the roof – and that he tried to alert the police to the shooter.
According to the FBI, it took 22 seconds from the time the shots were fired until the armed security forces reached the podium where Trump was standing.
Understanding how the gunman got onto the roof is a central question in the investigation.
The Secret Service worked with local law enforcement to maintain security at the site. Among other things, they had snipers on site, ready to identify threats, according to NBC News.
– Just because it (the roof) is outside the area, it does not have to mean that it is not vulnerable, says a source to NBC News.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is to be heard at a July 22 hearing about the shooting.