Donald Trump

Former NYPD chief weighs in on security at Trump rally in Pennsylvania

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Many in the law enforcement community are asking questions around the security plan for former President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania where an assassination attempt took place wounding the former president and killing an attendee.

Former NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan, a NBC New York consultant, said the U.S. Secret Service has to make sure the "high ground" is always covered.

"Secret Service has to look at this at a high-level," Monahan said Saturday night. "Former President Trump is a high-level threat. There's been a lot of intelligence about threats on him. They need to really secure an area tremendously. You have to go through a perimeter, an inner perimeter, an outer perimeter. You have to make sure the high ground is covered."

Monahan said the NYPD takes any visit by the former president to the Big Apple as a high-priority "major event."

"Everything should have been covered," Monahan said. "This should have been from the day one that they looked at him coming into the area, where is the high ground, where is the threat perimeter they need to cover."

The FBI has identified the suspect who made an assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

The gunman, who died at the scene, was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office confirmed to NBC News on Sunday morning.

Monahan said law enforcement will now comb over every detail of Crooks' life as part of the investigation.

"They're going to look at everything this individual has ever been involved in, who his associates are, what his social media profile is, who he has spoken to in the past, what he has posted, is there any sort of ideology he has professed," Monahan said.

He said there will be a "deep dive" into the gunman's past to determine his motive and if anyone else was involved.

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