image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Following the shooting of Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania, the US Secret Service has a number of important questions to address.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is now leading the investigation into the incident, which left one person dead, two others seriously hurt, and even Trump with an ear injury.
In light of the mounting questions in the US, a committee of the US House of Representatives has summoned the director of the Secret Service to appear before them on 22 July.
Security professionals are inquiring about the following topics:.

Why wasn’t the gunman’s roof protected beforehand?
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the alleged gunman, had no idea how he gained access to the roof of a building close to the rally, which was located just over 130 meters (430 feet) from Trump.
The Secret Service was aware of the rooftop’s vulnerability prior to the incident, according to two sources that NBC News cited.
Someone ought to have been on top of the building or making sure nobody could get up there, according to one of the sources cited by NBC.
People have also voiced their opinion that Trump’s podium area should have had its line of sight blocked from the rooftop, in addition to the access question.
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told CNN that this was “one of the most basic elements of site security, especially (for) a site that is outside and largely uncontrolled.”
Were warnings about the gunman passed on?
An eyewitness to the shooting told the BBC that he and others had “clearly” spotted Crooks crawling around on the roof with a rifle. They alerted police but the suspect continued moving around for several minutes before getting shots off and then being shot dead himself, he said.
FBI special agent Kevin Rojek admitted it had been “surprising” that the attacker had been able to open fire.
The county sheriff has confirmed that Crooks was spotted by a local police officer, who was unable to stop him in time. Something that remains unclear is whether this information reached the agents around Trump.
Crooks was already on officials’ radar, according to a senior law enforcement official. They anonymously told CNN that officers thought he was acting suspiciously near the event magnetometers. This information was allegedly relayed to the Secret Service.

Was the Secret Service overly reliant on local police?
The attacker fired his bullets from what authorities have described as a “secondary ring,”  which was patrolled not by the Secret Service but by local and state officers.
A former Secret Service agent said this sort of arrangement only worked when there was a clear plan on what to do when a danger was discovered.
“When you rely on the local law enforcement partners, you better have carefully planned and told them what you expect them to do about a threat,” Jonathan Wackrow told the Washington Post.
The county sheriff has accepted there had been “a failure” but insisted there was no single person to blame.