Law enforcement that helped with Trump rally security is under international scrutiny

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In Butler County, Penn., investigators are trying to determine how a gunman was able to shoot into a Trump rally Saturday. It's a security lapse that nearly led to the former president's assassination. The gunman also killed one spectator and critically wounded two others. NPR's Martin Kaste is in Butler, where local law enforcement agencies that helped with security now find themselves under international scrutiny.

MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: Four days on, police cars are still posted at the fairground where the rally was held and the parking lot of American Glass Research, the business next door, where the gunman was able to climb onto a roof with a clear line of sight of former President Trump. No one is getting unauthorized access to that roof now.

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: You can't get in.

KASTE: 'Cause it's a crime scene, or why?

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: Yes. So there's a big loop here you can take, and you can go right back out, all right?

KASTE: OK. All right. Thank you.

So why was that rooftop so much easier to get to on Saturday?

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KIMBERLY CHEATLE: This is an event that should have never happened.

KASTE: That's Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle in an exclusive interview with ABC News yesterday. Initial explanations have focused on how that building was outside the Secret Service's perimeter and that securing it was the job of local law enforcement. That's common practice in rallies like this.

In that ABC interview, Cheatle said, quote, "there was local police in that building. There was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building," end quote. But when pressed on who had ultimate responsibility, Cheatle told ABC this.

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CHEATLE: What I would say is that the Secret Service is responsible for the protection of the former president.

KASTE: Local authorities here in Butler have pushed back at the suggestion that they're the ones who dropped the ball. They say those local officers were staged in a different building on that property. Officials here also say a Butler Township police officer did climb up on the roof after the gunman, then lost his grip and fell to the ground. Also, retired Secret Service agents say, the real question is why did the feds' advance team put that building outside the perimeter if it had a roof with such a clear view of the former president?

TONY SAWL: Hopefully, the truth will come out, and if there were mistakes being made, hopefully, we can learn from that.

KASTE: Tony Sawl is a sergeant with the Butler County Sheriff's Office, and he was working the rally on Saturday. He says, the prep time for this event felt very short.

SAWL: Like, seven days notice - I mean, it's just - I mean, that quick, very quick. But for the most part, we're ready. I mean, we had our job and our assignments to do, and we did them, 100%.

KASTE: Former Secret Service agents say seven days is actually a generous amount of time in the context of a fast-moving campaign. When things get hectic, they say, you sometimes get only two or three days to plan. Still, these are rural departments with little experience with high-level VIP protection operations.

Sawl says, officers here are still in a fog, as he puts it, as they review in their minds what happened. He says they're also fielding a barrage of hostile calls from people, some of whom have bought into conspiracy theories.

SAWL: People call, and they just want to call us cowards for not doing our job. Well, we did our job.

KASTE: And as to getting to the truth about what happened, the Secret Service has promised a quick and independent review of potential failures. A House panel has subpoenaed Director Cheatle to testify on Monday, and the director has already promised to cooperate with congressional investigations. Martin Kaste, NPR News, Butler, Penn. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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