The truly bipartisan effort to identify the operational deficiencies that allowed a local 20-year-old with an AR-15-style rifle climb a building and try to assassinate a presidential candidate has uncovered some actual noteworthy information–besides leading to the resignation of the head of the Secret Service.
As CNN reports, based on the number of expended shells found around him, the shooter in Butler apparently got off eight shots before being eliminated by a sniper team, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher Paris testified on Tuesday. The shooter may have scouted the area using a drone prior to climbing onto the roof of the building.
The building where the shooter perched was supposed to be secured by the county police, according to the overall security plan, Paris testified. A state police sniper team, set up in a nearby building that overlooked the shooter’s location, had left their station to search for a suspicious individual they had seen earlier. That person ended up being the shooter.