Trump rally shooting: Police tracking the suspected shooter’s movements, how he got on roof

The suspected gunman at former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Butler County got onto the roof of the American Glass Research building just outside the Butler Farm Show.

The building is less than 150 yards from the stage where Trump spoke Saturday night.

Former Secret Service agent John Hudson, who served three presidents and now lives in the Pittsburgh area, says it never should have happened.

“How does a long rifle get into a fairgrounds or into an event like this? Much less, how does the guy scale a building, you know, onto a rooftop within 130 yards? That should have been posted with, at a very minimum, a uniformed officer,” Hudson said.

The Secret Service said today that local police were responsible for securing that building that’s on an open campus.

Sources said the building was listed as a potential vulnerability prior to the rally.

State police said they provided up to 40 troopers but they were all assigned to the inside perimeter, not the buildings outside.

Just before the shooting, a local police officer scaled the building but retreated when the gunman pointed the rifle at him.

Snipers took out the gunman after he opened fire, killing a man and wounding several others including the former president.

Hudson, who helped the Allegheny County District Attorney install more than a thousand license plate readers and surveillance cameras years ago, says they are being used to track the gunman’s movements prior to the shooting.

“I’m sure right now they have that license plate and they track whether he made it up days before as well as the day of, what time he got up there and if he was even in the area,” Hudson said.

There will likely be more answers as to how and why this happened in the coming days and weeks.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter . | Watch WPXI NOW

TRENDING NOW: