Blaze News investigates: ‘The plan was not executed’ — former Secret Service agent and ex-sniper analyze Trump shooting

Following the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, one topic has been on virtually everyone’s minds — left, right and center: How was the shooter able to get off eight shots at the former president from such a close distance?

By all accounts, the day was filled with numerous failures and lapses in security. To help evaluate what went wrong, Blaze News spoke to experts, including a 24-year veteran of the Secret Service, to answer some of the most obvious questions that Americans are asking.

As more news continues to leak about the events of last Saturday, more questions continue to arise about law enforcement’s response to Thomas Matthew Crooks on the day of the shooting.

For example, Fox News reported that Crooks’ parents reported him missing to police. CNN also reported that Crooks was checked by security outside the event hours prior and was found to have been carrying a range finder. It was also later discovered that Crooks had two remote explosive devices in his car.

How was someone whose presence was noted as suspicious to the police able to obtain an easy line of sight to the former president at such short range? Why were agents so slow to respond even after Crooks was spotted on the roof?

In terms of official answers, these questions remain unanswered, except for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s excuse that the roof was sloped at the top, thus making it an apparently insurmountable safety hazard.

The rooftop

To answer some of these questions, Blaze News spoke to Kenneth Valentine, a retired Secret Service agent with 24 years of experience. Valentine retired at the rank of special agent in charge of the Dignitary Protective Division. He also served on the Presidential Protective Detail for 10 years.

Having worked for Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, the former agent called the Pennsylvania shooting a failure of prevention, describing such a “close call” as “someone else’s loss and failure.”

“That doesn’t happen except in training ... and what happened [to Trump], that doesn’t happen either.”

When asked directly about the Secret Service director’s reasoning for not putting an agent on the rooftop in question, he said he disagreed with Cheatle’s reasoning but indicated that he also would not have placed agents there, for other reasons.

“A sloped roof is not a good enough reason to not put someone up there.”

“That would not be my first choice either,” he continued. “Posting that roof with an officer poses risks to an officer that are unnecessary. Done correctly, you would post multiple officers on the ground outside that building that prevents ... anyone, especially someone with a weapon, to get access to that high ground overlooking a secured venue.”

Dallas Alexander, former sniper and record-holder for the longest recorded sniper kill in history (2.2 miles), told Blaze News that the nearby rooftop being uncovered made “no sense” to him.

“This is the closest building to where the former/potential future president is going to be speaking. 150 yards is an extremely easy shot to make, even with minimal amounts of training. There is a ladder ... on to a rooftop that was not secured, that close to where Donald Trump is speaking,” he said in confusion.

“It makes absolutely no sense,” he added.

Comms and surveillance

With reports showing Crooks walking around, appearing to survey the very rooftop he would later use, citizens — and experts — are demanding answers regarding the apparent lack of communications between law enforcement agencies on site.

Videos circulated online appear to show that approximately two minutes passed between the time local attendees pointed out the shooter to authorities and the first shot being fired. Many have suggested that with even minimal communication, Crooks should have been stopped well before shots were fired.

“Communication is so key, and it’s what can save the day,” Valentine stated.

Valentine explained that it is up to the Secret Service to plan the communications for an event like a presidential rally.

This would include a “command post that would be staffed with not only Secret Service but every other law enforcement agency that is participating in the security plan.”

'They went out and looked at those buildings, they numbered those buildings ... they knew this building well, I assure you.'

“Communication is what’s supposed to happen there. Ideally, if agents and officers working in tandem ... encounter a man with a gun, that would be communicated twice. Once by the Secret Service, and once by the officer or detective that’s there so that the command post has the information they need to relay that to the working shift, to the snipers, and the assault team,” Valentine explained.

The retired agent said he was somewhat baffled by the fact that Crooks was able to walk around the area without being stopped again.

He explained that there are supposed to be teams of Secret Service or law enforcement personnel tasked specifically to be on the lookout for such suspicious persons.

“That’s what those teams are out there to do — to spot the duck amongst the geese.”

“You’re out there looking for what doesn’t belong. If you have someone in a trench coat on a hot day, you go talk to that person. If you see someone behaving erratically ... you check it out, you go ask them.”

Valentine noted that it’s not even unusual to encounter people getting onto rooftops in situations like these.

“You go check it out. You have a team that’s dedicated to going to rooftops to talk to people that are opening windows in venues that are overlooking the event ... you go check it out.”

“That happens, we deal with it, but looks like to me that the plan was not executed.”

Despite the existence of a checkpoint at the outskirts of the secure area — where Crooks was found with the range finder — Valentine guaranteed that people in the general area of the event are still under surveillance, even if they do not go through the checkpoint.

This includes any person behaving suspiciously in the general area, as well as any suspicious vehicles nearby.

“That area should be somewhat saturated with law enforcement to ensure no one gains access to high ground,” he specified.

In fact, Valentine said that the very existence of snipers in the area meant that the security team did an advanced, detailed scouting of their surroundings.

“They went out and looked at those buildings, they numbered those buildings ... they knew this building well, I assure you.”

Despite the constantly changing dynamics of a security landscape like a presidential rally, Valentine still said the shooting “should have been prevented.”

Alexander also added that what he saw constituted massive gaps in security from a team that should not assume anything will go according to plan.

As he stated in a now-viral video post, Alexander said he believes based on his experience that Crooks likely was assisted in his assassination attempt in some way.

“I believe that — because I was in a sniper counterterrorism unit for a lot of years, we did a lot of close protection for a lot of years. ... This is beyond just a lapse in security; this is beyond a small gap not being watched.”

“I believe ... that he had help from somewhere,” Alexander said.

Both experts called for an in-depth investigation as to how there could be so many failures at one single event, especially one involving a presidential candidate.