← Security Team
Perimeter & Rooftop Failures
The clearest physical failure on September 10, 2025 was that the shooter reportedly reached an overlooking rooftop without being detected. Per the charging document, the shooter reached the Losee Center rooftop and lay in a prone shooting position near the edge, with the roof overlooking the courtyard stage.
The uninspected rooftops
UVU's campus contingent was reportedly responsible for broader perimeter monitoring but did not conduct thorough inspections of nearby rooftops or buildings. That is the gap researchers point to: an elevated position with a sightline to the stage was left unchecked.
The campus-police side of this story, including UVU Police Chief Jeff Long and the six officers assigned, is covered separately. For that material, see the UVU campus police page rather than this protective-detail focused page.
Where the protective detail's perimeter ended
According to posts, campus police treated the rooftops and airspace as outside the private detail's jurisdiction, described as "beyond Charlie's bubble." That framing meant the protective detail's perimeter reportedly stopped short of the very rooftops an attacker could use.
Critics summarize the result bluntly: security "failed on perimeters." This is a reported characterization drawn from social posts and the visible outcome, not a formal finding.
A lighter hybrid setup
The arrangement that day was a hybrid of private security and a limited campus-police contingent, described as lighter than Kirk's prior events. Local Orem police were not directly mentioned as on-site, though they responded after the shooting.
The combination, critics argue, left no single party clearly owning the rooftops between the detail's "bubble" and the wider campus. Whether by design or by oversight, the prone shooting position on the Losee Center roof went unaddressed until it was too late.