See Where Countersnipers Could Have Stopped the Trump Rally Gunman

Where countersnipers were stationed — and where they were not — has emerged as a point of contention in assessing security failures at the July 13 assassination attempt at a rally for former President Donald J. Trump.

Since the shooting, testimonies from law enforcement officials before House and Senate panels have pointed to critical spots near the rally that could have allowed countersnipers to spot the gunman before he fired eight shots, including one that grazed Mr. Trump’s ear.

The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, managed to climb up on top of an AGR International warehouse, walk across its roof and begin shooting — all while evading countersnipers. There were four locations where countersnipers were stationed near the rally, according to Beaver County planning documents. Law enforcement officials have since testified that higher-elevation positions should have been secured.

The Water Tower

The tallest structure in the area was a water tower about 450 feet away from the warehouse Mr. Crooks used as his perch. About 108 feet high, its platform would have provided countersnipers with one of the clearest views of the warehouse rooftop and the rally grounds, according to analysis with a 3-D model built by The New York Times.

The analysis found that views from at least three of the countersniper positions were limited for a number of reasons, including the slope of the roof that the gunman chose and a tree that blocked the line of sight for one of two Secret Service countersniper teams.

If countersnipers had been positioned atop the water tower, here is what they would have seen.

In a House committee hearing on July 23, Representative Eli Crane, a Republican from Arizona and a former NAVY seal sniper, who visited the rally site after the shooting, raised questions about why no countersniper team was positioned on the “tallest structure by far on the site with 360 surveillance.”

In the same hearing, Col. Christopher Paris, the Pennsylvania State Police commissioner, said that a higher ground would have provided a tactical advantage.

“If any of our countersniper teams were up on that water tower, this individual wouldn’t have made it five feet,” he said.

The water tower was outside a secure perimeter the Secret Service delineated as part of its plan, even though it was within a rifle’s range of Mr. Trump. When asked why, Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned as the Secret Service director 10 days after the assassination attempt, said that assigning countersnipers there “would not be something that would be included in a security plan.” She did not provide any more details.

Roofs in the AGR Complex

Local law enforcement countersnipers were positioned in the AGR International building complex, which the Secret Service excluded from its secure perimeter. They were at windows inside a building adjacent to the one Mr. Crooks climbed up.

But no countersnipers were on any of the roofs of the complex, which was made up of multiple one- and two-story buildings with interconnected roofs.

In the House hearing, Representative Carlos Gimenez of Florida questioned the decision to place countersnipers inside — a position that provided a limited line of sight, unless the countersnipers were sticking their heads out of the windows.

Ronald L. Rowe Jr., the acting Secret Service director, told senators this week that the decision was an oversight in planning. “They should have been on the roof,” he said, while acknowledging that it was the Secret Service’s responsibility to clarify that expectation with local law enforcement.

In addition to the roof adjacent to the one Mr. Crooks was on, Times analysis showed that several of the flat and sloped roofs of the AGR complex would have provided clear lines of sight of the gunman on the roof.