Pennsylvania’s police commissioner revealed new details surrounding the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Trump in a Tuesday hearing in front of the House Homeland Security Committee.
Col. Christopher Paris, head of the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP), testified the day after now-former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle appeared before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. She drew bipartisan ire for stonewalling almost every line of questioning, citing ongoing investigations.
Paris also said many questions would be tackled in his agency’s after-action report. But he did offer bits of new information throughout the hearing, as lawmakers seek to understand how 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks made his way onto a roof and opened fire on Trump during the rally in Butler, Pa.
Here are five new details from Paris’s testimony:
Crooks was identified using informal channels
Crooks was first identified as a “suspicious” person by members of local law enforcement when he failed to enter the secure area ahead of the rally, according to Paris.
The officers, members of Butler’s Emergency Services Unit (ESU), became concerned when they saw him make use of a range finder, and decided to reach out to the command center, which was overseen by the Secret Service
“A member of Pennsylvania State Police inside of the command post received that information telephonically and by text, relayed it to the Secret Service, and then was given a number to follow up on,” Paris said.
When lawmakers pressed if Paris knew what the Secret Service contact did with the photo once it was sent to that number, he said he didn’t know.
The informal mode of communication raised questions among committee members as to why threat assessments were not communicated via formal channels, like digital radio, and whether or not that text thread may have been a source of the communication breakdown.
Eight shots were fired into the rally
Crooks fired eight shots into the rally before he was neutralized by Secret Service agents, Paris said in response to a question from Rep. Eric Swalwell (R-Calif.).
“I believe that the number is eight,” Paris said. “Eight casings have been recovered.”
He further specified that law enforcement uncovered eight bullet casings next to Crooks’s body.
Cheatle refused to give a number of shots fired into the rally during her hearing Monday.
Previously, law enforcement officers only said the shooter fired multiple times into the rally.
Officers overlooking roof left their post
After identifying Crooks as a suspicious person, the two Butler ESU officers stationed on the second story of the AGR building left their post to tail Crooks, according to Paris.
In a video presented during the hearing, lawmakers showed that the officers’ original post had a clear view of the position Crooks eventually assumed.
“Are you then saying from your knowledge that those ESU officers left the location where they could look out the window in search of this person?” Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) asked Paris.
“Yes, that is my understanding,” Paris responded.
The roof Crooks fired rounds from was just approximately 147 yards from the former president’s podium and offered a clear shot, yet it fell outside of the Secret Service’s security perimeter.
Shooter spent about 3 minutes on the roof
Paris said the shooter spent about three minutes on the roof before firing the shots at Trump, but cautioned he didn’t have a definite timeline.
A local police officer approached Crooks on the roof, after being hoisted up by another officer — but then dropped back onto the ground after Crooks leveled a rifle at him, according to Paris and other officials.
Paris clarified earlier remarks suggesting it was 2 to 3 minutes from when the officer confronted Crooks to when the shots were fired.
“That’s probably a total number of time, amount of time, that he was on the roof … when the one local officer hoisted the other one up and subsequently falls,” he said.
Paris said only seconds passed between when the officer fell down and Crooks fired shots.
Videos have emerged showing members of the crowd at the rally trying to warn law enforcement about Crooks once he crawls onto the roof, though it was unclear how long he had been there.
Secret Service assigned local officers to their posts
While local and state law enforcement assisted in the security operation for the former president’s rally, they had no say in its design — even outside of the rally’s secure perimeter. And that extended to how they covered the building Crooks fired from.
The members of the Butler ESU who left their post to find Crooks on the ground were assigned to their posts inside the AGR building by the Secret Service, said Paris.
One of the main questions from lawmakers at this week’s hearing has been why no agents or officers were stationed on the roof, given its proximity to the stage.
“I would say that again the primary responsibility of making these calls, making these decisions and making the operation plans is going to be the Secret Service,” said Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, who testified alongside Paris.
A PSP area commander who joined the walk-through on July 11, two days before the rally, reported to Paris that he flagged the rooftop Crooks used as a potential issue. Secret Service agents assured the commander that the area would be covered by Butler’s ESU.
“I think you have both stated that the ultimate responsibility for what occurred that day falls upon the Secret Service,” Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) concluded.