Police Take Cover as Suspect Aims Gun While Climbing Roof
Failure to Anticipate Security Vulnerable Area
A police officer present at former President Donald Trump's campaign rally was confirmed to have confronted the suspect just before the shooting. Given that the incident involved a former president and resulted in casualties, it is expected that debates over 'security failures' will inevitably arise.
On the 14th (local time), according to CNN and other local media, Michael Slupe, sheriff of Butler County, Pennsylvania, where the incident occurred, stated that local police officers spotted the suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, on the roof of a building before the shooting took place. Responding to a report of a suspicious person, local officers captured the suspect on the roof of a building about 150 yards (137 meters) away from Trump's campaign rally site.
However, as the officers attempted to climb onto the roof to apprehend the suspect, the suspect turned and aimed his gun. To avoid being shot, the officer took cover, during which the shooting targeting former President Trump occurred. One of the witnesses who recorded the situation on video immediately informed the police that an armed person was on the roof, but explained that the building was too close to them, so the suspect was not immediately visible. Just as they were about to give the police a detailed location, the shooting began, and the witness described the atmosphere as "very urgent and chaotic."
Sheriff Slupe called it a "clear security failure" that the shooter was allowed to gain a line of sight directly on former President Trump but added, "An investigation is currently underway, and there will certainly be lessons to learn from this." Regarding the officer’s choice to take cover rather than subdue the suspect, he said, "I would have acted the same way," dismissing the notion that police officers are like superheroes who can hold onto the roof with one hand and draw their gun with the other, saying, "That's not how situations unfold."
When asked whether he had received warnings that the building roof where the suspect was located could be a security vulnerability, he avoided a direct answer, saying, "I hope the ongoing investigation will answer that question." However, he explained that a large-scale meeting involving the US Secret Service (USSS), state police, township police, and bomb squad had taken place a week before the rally to divide roles, but they had not received any warnings about the possibility of dangers like a shooting. He added, "If we had known there was a threat, former President Trump would not have been allowed to appear."
Some analysts suggest that this assassination attempt on former President Trump could become a turning point that influences the outcome of the upcoming November presidential election. Pennsylvania, where the shooting occurred, is the largest battleground state located in the Rust Belt (a declining industrial region) and has been one of the areas where Republican support has gradually increased in recent years. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently analyzed that since the Republican Party is losing high-income, professional voters in cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia within Pennsylvania, securing the votes of blue-collar workers centered around the steel industry is crucial.
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