The Secret Service blamed local police for failing to secure the rooftop from which gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, insisting it was outside of the perimeter the federal agency was tasked with protecting.
Instead, securing and patrolling the factory grounds of AGR International Inc. — located about 130 yards from the stage where Trump was speaking Saturday — was the responsibility of local Pennsylvania police, Secret Service representative Anthony Gugliemi said, according the New York Times.
The Secret Service was only tasked with covering the grounds where Trump’s rally took place, with local police being recruited to assist with those efforts and secure the area outside of the rally.
But neighbors living near Butler Farm Show Grounds told The Post they were never visited by any law enforcement agencies — local or federal — in the days before or during the rally.
“Nobody contacted me. Nobody. Nobody called me, nobody stopped here,” said Valerie Fennell, whose home backs up on the fair grounds and is just beyond a stand of trees from AGR.
“I kinda was thinking that as close as my house is, that I honestly thought this might be part of a command station at some point,” she said.