(Washington) The American Secret Service, responsible for protecting political figures, will increase its use of surveillance drones, the acting director of this government agency announced on Friday, following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in mid-July.
“We did not have a drone on site” at the former president’s July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a young man fired multiple shots at the Republican candidate from a nearby rooftop, said Ronald Rowe, who took over as head of the agency after his boss left in the wake of the attack.
Donald Trump was lightly injured in the ear by the gunfire, which also killed one man and seriously injured two others. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by a Secret Service sniper positioned on a building behind the stage.
It was the first time a Secret Service sniper had been added to the candidate’s team and the federal and local snipers already assigned to his security during previous events and, “in hindsight, it was very timely,” Rowe said at a news conference.
“We should have had better coverage” of the roof on which the shooter was positioned, he added.
“We thought we had it” thanks to naked-eye surveillance by agents on the ground “but now we’re going to change our approach,” he said, adding that the Secret Service would now rely more on drones.
According to the FBI, the shooter had flown a drone near the rally site for 11 minutes, two hours before the attack.
Mr Rowe, who took office on July 23, reiterated that the assassination attempt was “a dark day” for the country and that the Secret Service took “full responsibility” for “failing in its mission”.
Several investigations are underway and agency employees will be held accountable if it is found that protocols were not followed, he said.