Secret Service was told local police couldn’t secure building used by shooter: Report

Ahead of former President Trump’s rally on Saturday, local police informed the Secret Service that they didn’t have the manpower to station a patrol car outside the building a gunman later climbed to shoot at the presidential candidate, The Washington Post reported.

District Attorney Richard Goldinger of Butler County, Pa., the town where the Trump rally took place, said the Secret Service “was informed that the local police department did not have manpower to assist with securing that building.”

The Post had Goldinger’s account confirmed by a Secret Service official familiar with the incident.

The Secret Service official told the outlet the agency considered placing an officer outside the building to mitigate the chance that a shooter gets a clear line of sight on Trump via higher ground. The agency prepares for such a scenario at all public events.

The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa., climbed the building just outside the rally’s security perimeter and fired multiple shots toward the stage from the rooftop, grazing Trump’s ear with a bullet, killing one attendee and critically injuring two others. He was quickly killed by Secret Service agents.

Officials are now trying to determine how Crooks was able to climb the building with no intervention by authorities, why law enforcement was not placed on the roof to begin with and whether the event was properly staffed for security. 

The Secret Service agent told the Post that there had been a proposal in advance planning to station a patrol car and officer outside the building complex, which had a large roof about 150 yards away from where Trump was standing. 

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle earlier this week said no agent had been placed on the building out of safety because it had a “sloped roof.”

Local law enforcement agencies tasked with securing areas around the venue that included the building, meanwhile, have said a lack of manpower and “extremely poor planning” were to blame for the gap in security. 

Cheatle, in her interview with ABC, took responsibility for the security failures, saying “it was unacceptable.” She also confirmed “there was local police in that building — there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building.”

Multiple federal investigations into the shooting have since been launched, with President Biden announcing an independent probe into the incident, the FBI leading the criminal investigation, and several congressional committees planning to hold hearings.

The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security — the government arm the Secret Service falls under — on Wednesday announced its own investigation of the agency’s actions before and during the attempted assassination.

In addition, officials from the Secret Service, the Department of Justice and the FBI were expected Wednesday afternoon to update the Senate on the incident.

Members of the House are also set to receive a briefing from Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.

A Secret Service spokesperson told The Hill they could not comment on matters related to an ongoing investigation.

“We of course are committed to working with the appropriate and relevant investigations of what happened on July 13, including with Congress, the Inspector General, and both internal and independent reviews,” they said in a statement. 

The Hill has reached out to the Butler County district attorney for comment.

— Updated at 5:20 p.m.