Secret Service Chief: ‘Sloped Roof’ Used by Trump Shooter Prevented Agency From Securing Area

‘There will be a safety factor that will be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,’ Director Kim Cheatle said.

The stage where former President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pa., on July 14, 2024. Brendan McDermid/Reuters

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said that the sloped roof of the warehouse building from which a would-be assassin fired at former President Donald Trump was too dangerous for Secret Service agents to secure.

Over the past weekend, questions have emerged about whether the Secret Service or local law enforcement did enough to secure the area around a Pennsylvania rally where the former president was speaking. FBI officials said that the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired at the former president from an elevated position on a warehouse building about 400 feet away.