The building from which a gunman fired at former President Trump on Saturday was — at least in hindsight — an obvious security risk. Its rooftop offered an ideal sniper’s perch, with a close, elevated and unobstructed view of Mr. Trump.
But when the Secret Service drew up plans for Saturday’s rally, it left that building outside its security perimeter. Instead, local law enforcement officials were given responsibility for that building, and no police officers were stationed on the roof itself.
The building, used as a warehouse by equipment manufacturer AGR International, has become a focal point of myriad investigations into the shooting that nearly felled a former American president, one that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas on Monday called a security failure.
The first question is why the building, only a few hundred feet from the stage, was left out of the perimeter. A Secret Service advance team visited the site and made the determination, and a supervisor would have had to approve it. The agency so far has not said who that was.
That is just one of many unanswered questions. It is also unclear how the gunman got on the roof. People at the rally reported a suspicious person to local law enforcement. Quickly thereafter, rally visitors pointed out a man on the warehouse and the Secret Service shot and killed him after he began his assault.
The Secret Service has not said if local law enforcement officers made service agents aware of a suspect, if those officers were up to the task of dealing with the situation or even if the two agencies were in constant communication.
The central question is whether the Secret Service failed at its most basic mission: keeping America’s leaders, including a former president, safe.
The security lapse is now the center of overlapping investigations, run by members of Congress and the Secret Service itself. On Monday, the leaders of the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee announced their own investigation into Saturday night’s shooting. Senators Gary Peters, Democrat of Michigan, and Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, told the Secret Service in a letter that they wanted to know “how the suspect was able to get this close to a Secret Service protectee.”
“An incident like this cannot happen,” Mr. Mayorkas told CNN, adding, “When I say something like this cannot happen, we are speaking of a failure.”
Former federal law enforcement officials have said the Secret Service should have ensured the building was secured before the rally took place. The agency often relies on local law enforcement agencies for security at events, but the particulars of the arrangement in Butler are still unclear.
President Biden on Sunday called for an “independent review” of the security planning for the Trump rally. Though Mr. Trump was removed from the scene after shots began and was quickly pronounced safe, one rally attendee was killed and two others were shot and remain hospitalized.
Mr. Mayorkas had few details of the review but said he planned to reach out soon to people he hoped would lead it and committed to it being conducted “externally of the government.”
“We will carefully analyze in an independent and thorough fashion what occurred,” Mr. Mayorkas said. “Recommendations will be made. Those recommendations will be implemented.”
Mr. Mayorkas also denied accusations from some Republicans that Mr. Trump’s security detail had requested more resources from the Secret Service but was denied them by the Homeland Security Department.
“That’s a baseless and irresponsible statement, and it is one that is unequivocally false,” Mr. Mayorkas said.
The secretary’s public remarks come as some agents privately complained over the lack of visibility of the director of the Secret Service, Kimberly A. Cheatle, after the shooting at the Trump rally. On Monday morning, Ms. Cheatle released a statement saying the agency was coordinating with the protective details of both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden.
“Secret Service personnel on the ground moved quickly during the incident, with our counter-sniper team neutralizing the shooter and our agents implementing protective measures to ensure the safety of former President Donald Trump,” Ms. Cheatle said.
She added the agency was working with federal and local law enforcement agencies to “understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again.
She said the agency would also cooperate with any congressional investigations.
Mr. Mayorkas expressed his support for its director: “I have 100 percent confidence in the director of the United States Secret Service. I have 100 percent confidence in the United States Secret Service.”
Secret Service leadership also sent a memo to agents on Sunday reminding them to retain their text messages sent around the time of the shooting, according to two law enforcement officials who dictated the memo to The New York Times. The homeland security inspector general in 2022 found that text messages sent and received by Secret Service agents around the time of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol were erased.
Ms. Cheatle said in the statement the attempted assassination has “understandably led to questions about potential updates or changes to the security for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.”
The event has been designated a “national special security event,” meaning the agency can pull in additional resources from other law enforcement agencies.
Mr. Mayorkas said that since Saturday’s shooting “adjustments have been made” not only to Trump’s protection detail but to those of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as well.
Former Secret Service agents said that the agency begins planning for campaign events like this one a few days before, dispatching its advance team to survey the site and meet local authorities.
Donald Mihalek, a former Secret Service agent who worked in the protective details for President George W. Bush and former President Barack Obama, said the service will finalize with the local authorities a security plan before the event, known as a “preliminary survey.”
The survey is then approved by a Secret Service supervisor. Leadership of other local law enforcement agencies also can weigh in, Mr. Mihalek said.
“Supervisors get briefed on the plan and check to see if there’s any gaps and try to fill those gaps. And once that’s done it’s game time,” Mr. Mihalek said.
Mr. Mihalek said the service tends to be stretched thin during campaigns, when they must protect both the sitting president and candidates simultaneously, he said.
For events like this one, Mr. Mihalek and other former law enforcement officials familiar with Secret Service planning say the security perimeter is divided into three sections: an inner perimeter staffed by the Secret Service, a middle perimeter that includes checkpoints staffed by both the Secret Service and local law enforcement and an outer perimeter typically policed by local law enforcement.
Former law enforcement officials with ties to the Secret Service have said the agency should have ensured the building where the would-be assassin was positioned was covered by the inner security perimeter.
Jeffrey James, a 22-year veteran of the Secret Service, said that counter-sniper teams are trained to shoot from 1,000 yards away — and to scan areas out to that distance. He said close-up scans are typically done by those on foot.
The gunman in Butler County was only roughly 200 yards from Secret Service snipers. Mr. James said that may have been one reason that counter-sniper teams were slow to detect him: “As a sniper, you’re not expecting anybody to be that close,” Mr. James said.
John Cohen, a former top official for the Homeland Security Department’s intelligence branch under the Obama and Biden administrations, said the shooting on Saturday should not be viewed in isolation.
“We’re in the midst of the most dangerous threat environment that I’ve experienced in the 40 years I’ve worked in law enforcement and homeland security,” Mr. Cohen said.
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