When U.S. Secret Service counter snipers pulled up to a farm grounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 10, just three days before the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, it was the first time this campaign cycle that the highly trained, tactical unit had been deployed to secure an event for the former president.
“It was the first time Secret Service counter snipers were deployed to support” a Trump event this year, Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe confirmed to CBS News during a news conference Friday, held at the federal law enforcement agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.
On July 13, a gunman opened fire on Trump from a rooftop roughly 400 feet away from the former president during an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A CBS News video analysis determined that the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, fired eight shots in under six seconds before he was fatally struck by a round from one of the counter snipers — a fact later confirmed by the FBI.
Among a litany of security lapses Rowe disclosed Friday afternoon, the acting director told reporters that Secret Service counter snipers did not have radio communications with local law enforcement that day. Instead, the agents relied on text messaging, with local Butler County tactical teams sending Secret Service snipers two pictures of Crooks via text message at 5:45 p.m., about 26 minutes before shots were fired.
At that point, neither local law enforcement nor Secret Service knew Crooks had a gun. Rowe revealed that neither the counter snipers nor Trump’s security detail were aware that the suspicious individual — first spotted by local law enforcement roughly 75 minutes earlier — was armed until the shots were fired.
“What I’ve directed now is that everybody should be using the radio net,” Rowe said. “And if we don’t have the ability to pipe in or leverage that counterpart system, that’s one of the things that we’re looking at now.”
Communications were also disjointed, Rowe explained, because there were two separate command posts used that day — a “Secret Service security room” and a separate command post staffed with local law enforcement. Only one Pennsylvania State Police officer was assigned to the agency’s security room, and there were no Secret Service personnel within local law enforcement’s command post, a situation that Rowe described as “unique,” meriting further investigation.
“If the large majority of our partners are in a unified command post or in a different location, we need to probably be there too,” Rowe added.
According to a Secret Service timeline unveiled by Rowe on Friday, at 5:53 p.m., the leader for the U.S. Secret Service counter snipers texted their team that local law enforcement was “looking for a suspicious individual outside of the perimeter lurking around the AGR building,” referring to the roof from which the shooter later opened fire on Trump.
“At this time, Secret Service personnel are operating with the knowledge that local law enforcement was working on an issue of a suspicious individual,” Rowe said. “The concept of local law enforcement working on such issues is common at sites.”
Rowe noted that there were multiple suspicious persons reported to the Secret Service on July 13, along with over 100 calls for local law enforcement to address issues ranging from general help requests to medical problems to missing children reports.
At 6:11 p.m., moments before the shooting, a member of Trump’s protective detail contacted a counterpart within Secret Service’s Pittsburgh field office to follow up on that earlier communication, but it was too late. As the agents spoke on the phone, shots rang out.
“Right in the middle of that phone conversation, the shots begin firing,” Rowe said.
Rowe described the lack of coverage on the roof where Crooks was situated as “a Secret Service failure,” adding, “the roofline should have been covered. We should have had better eyes on that.”
The Secret Service also failed to deploy a drone at the rally site, Rowe said, with the agency also turning down an offer from local law enforcement to use their drone. The acting director said he was unsure why that offer was declined, calling it another protocol issue that will be reviewed.
“One of the other changes that I implemented when I became the acting director, is we are now going to leverage the use of unmanned aerial systems at sites now,” Rowe said.
The assassination attempt has prompted heightened scrutiny of Secret Service operations, with several departmental and congressional investigations underway. Rowe took over leadership of the agency last week, after Kimberly Cheatle resigned amid pressure from lawmakers.
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday delayed plans to meet and consider next year’s funding for the U.S. Secret Service.
In testimony Tuesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Judiciary committees, Rowe conceded that the July 13 shooting “made me ashamed,” adding that he “cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”
— Scott MacFarlane and Kaia Hubbard contributed to this report.