Directly after the attempted assassination of former President Trump last month, local Pennsylvania police complained they warned Secret Service agents days prior that the warehouse where the gunman shot from needed coverage, new videos have revealed.
The videos, obtained by The Wall Street Journal, give more insight into who might have been responsible for a faulty protection detail that allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks to fire at least eight shots at Trump during a rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13.
“‘I f—ing told them that they needed to post guys f—ing over here. … I told them that f—ing Tuesday,” a Butler Township officer said in audio captured on his body camera. “I talked to the Secret Service guys. They’re like, ‘Yeah, no problem. We’re going to post guys over here.’”
The incident, which left one rallygoer dead, two others critically injured and the president wounded on his ear, has frustrated lawmakers who have called for accountability and opened multiple investigations into who was responsible for the lapse in security.
In one video, a local police officer over radio refers to Crooks — then a suspicious person the authorities had lost track of — as “a gentleman with a flat face that we were looking for earlier. He was creeping people out.”
“He was watching people out in the woods by the water tower. I’m not sure he is the gentleman down or not,” the officer says in audio captured by a body camera.
The video also reveals confusion on the ground regarding the shooter, when roughly 10 minutes after the attack one officer tells another: “I thought you guys 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.
“What the f—,” the officer replies. “Why were we not on the roof? Why weren’t we?”
The incident has generated a great deal of finger-pointing, with the Secret Service reportedly believing snipers from the Butler County Emergency Services unit were meant to secure the roof of the building just outside the safety perimeter of the rally.
But local authorities have pushed back vehemently, claiming they told Secret Service agents they were not able to fully secure the building prior to the event.
Instead, local snipers were placed on the second floor inside the building.
The intense scrutiny placed on the Secret Service led directly to Director Kimberly Cheatle resigning last month.
In a congressional hearing shortly after she stepped down, Ronald Rowe, acting director of the Secret Service, also revealed communication gaps between Secret Service agents and local law enforcement, including that the two were not on the same radio frequencies. The gap led to agents not hearing warnings about the shooter being armed until it was too late.
At the same hearing, Rowe took responsibility for the colossal safety failure.