WASHINGTON — The Secret Service did not properly plan and coordinate with local law enforcement ahead of former President Donald Trump’s July 13 campaign rally, where he was shot at in an assassination attempt, a new report says.
The interim report by the House task force investigating the attempt on his life that day says that the information lawmakers obtained during the first phase of the probe “clearly shows a lack of planning and coordination between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners before the rally.”
These findings, the bipartisan panel said, were based on 23 transcribed interviews with local law enforcement, thousands of pages of documents, and testimony from task force’s public hearing in September, the task force said in a release.
On the day of the rally, the task force said there could have been opportunities in which “federal, state, and local law enforcement officers could have engaged Thomas Matthew Crooks at several pivotal moments.” But the report says “fragmented lines of communication allowed Crooks to evade law enforcement and, eventually, climb on to the roof of the AGR complex and fire eight shots at the rally stage and crowd, killing a rally attendee and injuring three others, including former President Trump.”
An officer with the Butler Township Police Department told the task force that he was helped onto the AGR complex roof by another officer and spotted the shooter with the gun, saying Crooks “pointed his firearm in my face” and had a bookbag and gun magazines. He said he fell to the ground and immediately radioed that the suspicious person on the roof was armed.
The officer who helped his colleague onto the roof told the task force, “I try to get him up to the roof. He’s kind of on the side, however he is up there. He comes back down screaming, “THERE’S AN AR! AN AR! A GUY WITH AN AR!’”
“To date, the Task Force has not received any evidence to suggest that message reached the former President’s USSS detail prior to shots fired,” the task force said in its report.
By the time information about the shooter had reached the Secret Service command post, the task force said, “Crooks had been under scrutiny by the Secret Service’s state and local partners for approximately 40 minutes.”
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
The report detailed the lack of coordination among the law enforcement agencies on the morning of July 13, ahead of the rally. The Butler County Emergency Services Unit held its own briefing, for example, as did the Butler Township Police Department, but the task force said, “The Secret Service did not participate in either briefing.” There was also no broader briefing among Secret Service and other law enforcement, the task force said.
The task force said it’s still in the process of conducting more than 20 transcribed interviews of federal officials and others who might have more information on what transpired on July 13. It’s also investigating the alleged assassination attempt against Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15. The panel has requested information and records from the Secret Service, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
