Shortly after the attempted assassination of former President Trump last month, local Pennsylvania police complained that they alerted Secret Service agents days earlier that the warehouse where the shooter fired needed cover, new videos have revealed.
The videos, obtained by The Wall Street Journal, provide more information about who may have been responsible for a security breach that allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks to fire at least eight shots at Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
“’I told them they needed to post guys here. … I told them that Tuesday,” a Butler Township officer said in audio captured on his body camera. “I talked to the Secret Service people. They’re like, ‘Yeah, no problem. Let’s post guys here.’”
The incident, which left one rally attendee dead, two others seriously injured and the president injured in the ear, frustrated lawmakers who called for accountability and opened multiple investigations into who was responsible for the security lapse.
In a video, a local police officer radios to Crooks – then a suspect whom authorities had lost sight of – as “a gentleman with a flat face who we were looking for earlier. He was scaring people.”
“He was watching people in the woods near the water tower. I’m not sure if he’s the gentleman or not,” the officer says in audio captured by a body camera.
The video also reveals confusion on the ground regarding the shooter, when about 10 minutes after the attack one officer says to another: “I thought you were on the roof. I thought it was you. I thought it was you.”
The second officer then explains that no one was placed on the roof.
“Oh shit,” the police officer responds. “Why weren’t we on the roof? Why weren’t we?
The incident sparked many accusations, with the Secret Service reportedly believing that snipers from the Butler County Emergency Services unit were supposed to secure the roof of the building outside the rally’s security perimeter.
But local officials reacted strongly, claiming they told Secret Service agents they failed to fully secure the building before the event.
Instead, local snipers were placed on the second floor of the building.
The intense scrutiny placed on the Secret Service led directly to the resignation of Director Kimberly Cheatle last month.
At a congressional hearing shortly after she left office, Ronald Rowe, acting director of the Secret Service, also revealed communication gaps between Secret Service agents and local authorities, including the fact that the two were not on the same radio frequencies. . The gap meant officers didn’t hear warnings about the shooter being armed until it was too late.
At the same hearing, Rowe took responsibility for the colossal security breach.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
