Secret Service should have watched roof used by Trump rally shooter, acting director says

The US Secret Service “should have had eyes” on the roof where an attempted assassin fired shots at Donald Trump last month, acting Director Ronald Rowe said Friday.

“This was a Secret Service failure,” Rowe told reporters. “That roof should have been covered. We should have had eyes on that.”

Rowe has repeatedly asserted during the press conference that the Secret Service is ultimately to blame for the security failures and that local police forces should not be blamed for the security failures that led to the shooting.

“In no way should any state or local agency supporting us in Butler on July 13th be held responsible for our Secret Service failure,” Rowe said.

“Every single person within the Secret Service feels the weight of what happened” at Trump’s July 13 rally, he added.

“We will earn back your trust,” Rowe said.

Secret Service countersnipers at the rally did not have “any knowledge” that there was a man with a gun on the roof of a nearby building until shots were fired, Rowe said.

“Based on what I know right now, neither the Secret Service countersniper teams nor members of the former president’s security detail had any knowledge that there was a man on the roof of the AGR building with a firearm,” Rowe said.

“It is my understanding that personnel were not aware the assailant had a firearm until they heard gunshots,” he added.

His statement nods to failures in communication between local and federal agents during the rally. Officials have previously said that local officers reported seeing the would-be assassin with a firearm on a roof 30 seconds before shots were fired, but that the message never reached the Secret Service.

The Secret Service will not be providing “real time updates” of any potential discipline for agency employees for the security failures as its internal reviews move forward, Rowe said.

He said that a mission assurance review that is ongoing will determine potential policy violations. If it finds violations, a parallel disciplinary review will get underway.

“We are not going to be able to provide real time updates,” Rowe said, calling the internal reviews a “very thorough” investigation.

Pressed by a reporter that Americans deserve information on accountability, Rowe said he would be able to put forward a “high level” statement indicating people are being held “accountable.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.