Secret Service head vows accountability for ‘abject failure’ in first Trump assassination attempt

WASHINGTON (AP) — Communication breakdowns with local law enforcement hampered the Secret Service’s performance during a July campaign rally where former President Donald Trump was shot and wounded, according to a report released Friday (Sept. 21, 2024) that lays out a litany of missed opportunities to stop a gunman who opened fire from an unsecured roof.

A five-page document summarizing the key conclusions of a yet-to-be finalized Secret Service report lays bare the cascading and wide-ranging failings that preceded the July 13 shooting at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally at which Trump was struck in the ear by gunfire.

Those include an absence of clear guidance from the Secret Service to local law enforcement, the failure to fix line-of-sight vulnerabilities at the rally grounds that left Trump open to sniper fire and “complacency” among some agents, said Ronald Rowe Jr., the agency’s acting director.

Though the failed response has been well documented through congressional testimony, news media investigations and other public statements, the summary document released Friday marks the Secret Service’s most formal attempt to catalog the errors of the day and comes amid fresh scrutiny of the agency following Sunday’s arrest of a man who authorities say stalked Trump at a Florida golf course.

“This was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service. It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” Rowe said at a news conference accompanying the release of the summary.

The report details a series of “communications deficiencies” before the shooting by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper after firing eight rounds in Trump’s direction from the roof of a building less than 150 yards from where Trump was speaking. That building had been identified as a possible hazard before the event, Rowe said, yet officials didn’t take appropriate steps to correct the potential problems.

“Line-of-sight issues were acknowledged, but not properly mitigated. Issues were encountered the day of the visit with respect to line-of-sight concerns, but they were not escalated to supervisors,” Rowe said. “While some members of the advanced team were very diligent, there was complacency on the part of others that led to a breach of security protocols.”

Among the other problems: Some local police at the site were unaware of the existence of two communications centers on the grounds, meaning officers did not know that the Secret Service were not receiving their radio transmissions.

Law enforcement also overly relied on cell phones, instead of Secret Service radio frequencies, to communicate vital information. As officers searched for Crooks before the shooting, details were being transmitted “via mobile/cellular devices in staggered or fragmented fashion” instead of through the Secret Service’s own network.

“The failure of personnel to broadcast via radio the description of the assailant, or vital information received from local law enforcement regarding a suspicious individual on the roof of the AGR complex, to all federal personnel at the Butler site inhibited the collective awareness of all Secret Service personnel,” the report said. AGR International Inc. operates a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds, where the rally was held.

That breakdown was especially problematic for Trump’s protective detail, “who were not apprised of how focused state and local law enforcement were in the minutes leading up to the attack on locating the suspicious subject.” Had they known, the report says, they could have made the decision to relocate Trump while the search for the gunman was in progress.

The report raises more serious questions about why no law enforcement were stationed on the roof Crooks climbed onto before opening fire.

A local tactical team was stationed on the second floor of a building in the complex from which Crooks fired. Multiple law enforcement entities questioned the effectiveness of the team’s position, “yet there was no follow-up discussion” about changing it, the report says. And there was no discussion with Secret Service about putting a team on the roof, even though snipers from local law enforcement agencies “were apparently not opposed to that location.”

The tactical team operating on the second floor of the building had no contact with Secret Service before the rally. That team was brought in by a local police department to help with the event, without Secret Service’s knowledge, the report says.

The Secret Service understood in advance that the rally site, selected by Trump’s staff because it better accommodated the “large number of desired attendees,” was a security challenge because of lines of sight that could be exploited by a would-be attacker. And yet, the report said, no security measures were taken on July 13 to remove those concerns and the Secret Service lacked detailed knowledge about the local law enforcement support that would even be in place.

The report’s executive summary does not identify specific individuals who may be to blame nor does it indicate whether any staff members have been disciplined, though The Associated Press has previously reported that at least five Secret Service agents have been placed on modified duty. The director at the time, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned more than a week after the shooting, saying she took full responsibility for the lapse.

The Secret Service’s investigation is one of numerous inquiries, including by Congress and by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general office.

Rowe has said the July shooting and Sunday’s episode, in which 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested after Secret Service agents detected a rifle poking through shrubbery lining the West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course where Trump was playing, underscore the need for a paradigm shift in how the agency protects public officials.

Trump, he said, is receiving the “highest levels” of protection and the Secret Service response in Florida was an example of procedures working as they should.

JULY 17, 2024:

BETHEL PARK, Pa. (AP) — Three days after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump (July 13, 2024), the 20-year-old man who came close to killing the former president remains an enigma. Neighbors describe Thomas Matthew Crooks as an intelligent loner with few friends who left a vanishingly thin social media footprint and no hint of strong political beliefs. Even his cellphone bore few clues after the FBI accessed its contents, frustrating investigators’ efforts to identify a potential motive. Classmates at Bethel Park High School said Crooks was smart but standoffish, often seen wearing headphones and preferring to sit alone at lunch looking at his phone.

BETHEL PARK, Pa. (AP) — After three days, an enigmatic portrait emerged of the 20-year-old man who came close to killing former President Donald Trump (July 13, 2024) with a high-velocity bullet: He was an intelligent loner with few friends, an apparently thin social media footprint and no hints of strong political beliefs that would suggest a motive for an attempted assassination.

Even after the FBI cracked into Thomas Matthew Crooks’ cellphone, scoured his computer, home and car, and interviewed more than 100 people, the mystery of why he opened fire on Trump’s rally Saturday, a bullet grazing the GOP nominee’s ear, remained as elusive as the moment it happened.

“He sat by himself, didn’t talk to anyone, didn’t even try to make conversation,” said 17-year-old Liam Campbell, echoing the comments of classmates who remembered the shooter in this quiet community outside of Pittsburgh. “He was an odd kid,” but nothing about him seemed dangerous, he added. “Just a normal person who seemed like he didn’t like talking to people.”

So far, there has been no public disclosure the shooter left any writings, suicide note, social media screed or any other indicator explaining his reasons for targeting Trump. A law enforcement official briefed on the ongoing investigation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that Crooks’ phone had not immediately yielded any meaningful clues related to motive, or whether he acted alone or with others.

Crooks’ political leanings were also hazy. Crooks was registered as a Republican in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he gave $15 to a progressive political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021, the day Democratic President Joe Biden was sworn into office.

The absence of a satisfactory explanation has led Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to recount the lengthy federal investigation into the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest such attack in the nation’s history. That probe closed after 17 months without finding any motive for what drove the 64-year-old gunman to spray more than 1,000 rounds into a crowd of concertgoers other than to “attain a certain degree of infamy.”

Crooks, with a slight build, wire-rimmed glasses and thin hair parted in the middle, went by “Tom.” He was described by classmates at Bethel Park High School as smart but standoffish, often seen wearing headphones and preferring to sit alone at lunch looking at his phone. Some said he was often mocked by other students for the clothes he wore, which included hunting outfits, and for continuing to wear a mask after the COVID pandemic was over.

“He was bullied almost every day,” said classmate Jason Kohler. “He was just an outcast.”

After graduating from high school in 2022, Crooks went on to the Community College of Allegheny County, earning an associate’s degree with honors in engineering science in May. He also worked at a nursing home as a dietary aide.

A 1997 Secret Service study into those who had attempted assassinations since 1949 found there was no single indicator that a person might seek to take the life of a public figure. However, two-thirds of all attackers were described as “social isolates.”

Like Crooks, few had any history of violent crime or criminal records. Most attackers also had histories of handling weapons, but no formal weapons or military training, according to the study.

As a freshman, Crooks had tried out for his high school rifle team but was rejected for poor marksmanship, the AP previously reported. Through his family, he was a member of the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, a shooting range about 11 miles (17 kilometers) east of Bethel Park.

“We know very little about him,” club president Bill Sellitto told the AP. “That was a terrible, terrible thing that happened Saturday — that’s not what we’re about by any means.”

The club has an outdoor range for high-powered rifles with targets set at distances of up to 170 meters (187 yards).

Crooks was well within that range when he opened fire on Trump Saturday from about 135 meters (147 yards) from where Trump was speaking, unleashing two quick volleys of rounds at the former president with an AR-15 style rifle.

His father, Matthew Crooks, bought the gun in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, in 2013 from Gander Mountain, a retail outdoors chain.

The day before the shooting, Thomas Crooks went to the sportsman’s club and practiced on the rifle range, according to a federal intelligence briefing obtained by the AP. On the day of the attack, he purchased 50 rounds of 5.56mm ammo for his rifle from a local gun shop and drove alone to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of the Trump rally.

He parked at a gas station lot about a third of a mile from the event. He wore a gray T-shirt with the logo of a popular YouTube channel dedicated to firearms, camo shorts and a black belt.

Witnesses and law enforcement officials say Crooks walked around for at least a half-hour before climbing onto the roof of a building adjacent to the Butler Farm Show grounds, where Trump was speaking. As spectators screamed for police to respond, Crooks opened fire, letting loose two quick bursts. A Secret Service counter sniper fired back within about 15 seconds, killing Crooks with a shot to the head.

Trump said this week that one bullet clipped his right ear, and that only a last-second turn of his head kept him from potentially being mortally wounded. One of the bullets aimed toward Trump killed 50-year-old firefighter Corey Comperatore, a spectator who was in the bleachers. Two others were seriously wounded.

Without clear insight into what drove Crooks, many on both sides of the American political divide tried to fill the void with their own partisan assumptions, evidence-free speculations and conspiracy theories in the days since the shooting.

Some Republicans have pointed at Democrats for labeling Trump a threat to democracy. Democrats, in turn, pointed to Crooks’ GOP registration and to Trump’s own long history of provocative rhetoric, including his continued praise of the Jan. 6 rioters.

Access to the Crooks home remained blocked by yellow police tape, with officers keeping watch and preventing reporters from approaching.

Melanie Maxwell, who lives in the neighborhood, was dropping off “Trump 2024” lawn signs at another neighbor’s home.

Like the others, she didn’t know the Crooks family well. She said she was appalled by the assault and said any security lapses should be fully investigated.

“The hand of God protected President Trump,” she said.