Donald Trump’s rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, should have been festive. Instead, it saw the former president shot through the ear by a deranged gunman. Two innocent rallygoers were maimed, and shrieking onlookers witnessed the last moments of father and firefighter Corey Comperatore as he lay shot and bleeding on the bleachers.
The lapses in security that allowed an unremarkable 20-year-old man onto a nearby roof and up to his perch of dark opportunity are under public scrutiny — and will surely be probed in upcoming weeks. Up to this point, and unavailable to answer questions until Tuesday, Director of the Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle offered little clarity.
Asked why no armed agents were posted on the AGR International Inc. roof — a structure adjacent to the rally with a shockingly direct line of fire on the podium — Cheatle said it was because the roof was “sloped” and raised a “safety factor.” For this reason, she said, officials instead “secure[d] the building from inside.”
Her argument is ridiculous.
As a former roofer, I’ve carried the requisite 75-pound bundles of shingles up many ladders, gone down to start compressors, gone up to bring hoses and nail guns, and looked down over precipitous drops that make nether regions tingle. I know the distinctive five-nail fastening schedule we used by its sound, “pop, pop, pop-pop-pop,” and I can distinguish a “cake” roof from a dangerous one.
As one can imagine, the most comfortably “walkable” roofs are flat or nearly flat. Most
