“They were behind the curve, because they should have had those places covered ahead of time,” Nottingham said.
“Whenever I’ve been with them, every single high ground is taken by them or the local SWAT police,” Cavanaugh said. “There’s nobody allowed walking on rooftops. They command the high ground.”
He said a high-powered rifle like an AR-15 can hit targets 200 yards away. Trump was about 148 yards from the rooftop where the shooter was found dead, NBC News found, based on an analysis of Google Earth images.
“That doesn’t mean that someone can’t sneakily make their way to one of those positions afterward, especially if it was someone who had done some preplanning,” said Snider, an adjunct lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “There are a lot of places in that area to hide, and you can’t monitor every possible position.”
“Someone who is that driven to do something like this will find a way to try and get the job done,” she added.
While it's difficult to eliminate every threat, some security experts said they were surprised that the shooter had been able to scale a roof overlooking the campaign event.
www.nbcnews.com
“I believe that the resources were not there that they would have adequately needed to do their jobs,” said Caltabiano. “When you’re a former president, you don’t get as many resources as a current president.”
“Do I think the Secret Service will change,” Caltabiano asked. “Absolutely, immediately. I think that there is going to be added resources to [former] President Trump and I think the question is why weren’t they there before.”
Former Secret Service agent Robert Caltabiano spoke with 19 News Saturday evening and detailed what led up to the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump.
www.cleveland19.com