‘There was local police in that building,’ agency Director Kimberly Cheatle said Tuesday morning.
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said Tuesday that local police officers were inside a building as a shooter on the roof opened fire on former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
“There was local police in that building—there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building,” she told ABC News in an exclusive interview, referring to officers with the Butler Police Department.
The director, who confirmed in the interview that she doesn’t plan to resign from her position, said that her agency “did share support for that particular site” and confirmed the Secret Service “was responsible for the inner perimeter” of the rally where former President Trump spoke.
Her agency also sought assistance from local police to secure the outer perimeter, indicating that security of the building used by the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was being handled by the local police department.
The Secret Service is the entity that is charged with protecting U.S. leaders, including former presidents and vice presidents as well as members of their families. But at times, the agency will work with local or state law enforcement partners to provide security.
“The Secret Service is tasked with the tremendous responsibility of protecting the current and former leaders of our democracy,” Ms. Cheatle said in a statement, her first since the Saturday assassination attempt. “It is a responsibility that I take incredibly seriously, and I am committed to fulfilling that mission.”
Video footage taken from the scene around the rally as well as witnesses who spoke with The Epoch Times indicate that a man with a gun was spotted on the roof of the building prior to the assassination attempt. Some said they alerted police officers to the individual. Responding to those reports, Ms. Cheatle said that there was a “very short period of time” between the reports of the shooter and when he opened fire.
Responding to questions about why a Secret Service sniper wasn’t placed on the roof of the building that the gunman used, she said that it’s because the building “has a sloped roof at its highest point.”
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