AUSTIN, Texas — The lone state trooper guarding the Texas governor's mansion the night an arsonist torched it was ill-equipped to properly guard the grounds and should have had help, an official said Thursday.
The investigation by Michael Escalante, a sergeant in the state Department of Public Safety, continues into the level of security at the mansion that night. But he told a commission that oversees the department that the trooper on duty when the fire broke out early June 8 wasn't adequately trained to monitor the security system, which wasn't working properly.
Only 13 of 20 security cameras on mansion grounds were working, and the motion sensor system also wasn't working properly, Escalante said. Only a single guard was assigned to the mansion, despite requests for a second trooper, he said.
"This is likely not the finest moment for the Department of Public Safety," commission Chairman Allan Polunsky said Thursday.
People are also reading…
Surveillance video shows someone igniting an object and throwing it onto the porch of the 152-year-old mansion. But the trooper, who was on his second shift of the day, was turned away from the security console in the carriage house behind the mansion and working on a computer when the fire was reported just after 1:30 a.m., Escalante said.
An off-duty police officer walking near the mansion at the time of the blaze told the trooper that he saw a suspicious-looking individual rush away from the mansion area, get in a parked car and drive away, Escalante said. A cigarette lighter found by the officer where the car had been parked has been turned over to the DPS as evidence.
Polunsky said he would ask the U.S. Secret Service to do a security assessment of the Capitol complex grounds to determine what measures the department could take to better protect the Capitol and surrounding buildings.
The building that burned, a two-story Greek revival-style house, has been the official home of every Texas governor since it was completed in 1856.
Despite extensive damage to the roof and front columns, experts say the historic landmark is salvageable, and Gov. Rick Perry has said he is committed to restoring the mansion, no matter the cost.
