An internal review by the US Secret Service has found that “multiple operational and communications failures” by the agency allowed a gunman to open fire on former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in July.
Trump narrowly avoided death while speaking to a crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, when a bullet fired from around 150m away grazed his ear. The gunman, a 21-year-old named Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired from a rooftop that had apparently been left unprotected by the Secret Service, and managed to kill one rally goer and injure two others before he was shot dead by a sniper.
In the aftermath of the incident, it emerged that local police had spotted Crooks using a range-finder an hour before he opened fire and passed a photo on to Secret Service agents. These agents noticed the gunman on the roof 20 minutes before the incident, but took no action until the first shots rang out.
In a preliminary report released on Friday, the Secret Service stressed that local police were responsible for securing the roof in question. However, the report stated, the officers covering this building had no contact with the Secret Service.
Some information about the shooter relayed by local law enforcement never made it to the Secret Service, the report stated, blaming a lack of radio communication between the various agencies working at the rally site. As a result, information about Crooks’ appearance and movements had to be relayed by chains of phone calls and text messages, it claimed.
Shortly before the rally began, Crooks was able to fly a camera-equipped drone over the site without being stopped or questioned. The Secret Service report stated that while the agency deployed a counter-drone team to the site, “there were some technical difficulties” with their equipment.
Regarding the choice of venue, the report stated that a Secret Service team had visited the site beforehand and noted that the line of sight between the rooftop and the stage where Trump spoke could pose a “challenge.” However, “the security measures to alleviate these concerns were not carried out.”
The internal investigation is still ongoing, and a final report is expected in the coming weeks. While much of Friday’s summary appeared to pass blame on to local law enforcement, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told reporters that the agency nevertheless needs “a shift in paradigm in how we conduct our protective operations.”
