Updated
Col. Christopher Paris, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, testifies before a House panel on the assassination attempt against Trump.
The man who shot former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on July 13 had a detonation device, the state’s top police official said on July 23.
“We were aware of that very early on and that was a serious tactical consideration in the immediate aftermath as we worked that crime scene,” Col. Christopher Paris, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, told a U.S. House of Representatives hearing in Washington.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) had asked Col. Paris for confirmation that Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old shooter, had a detonation device and bombs in his car, which was parked near the rally.
Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris revealed that officers from the Butler Emergency Services Unit (ESU) left their post inside the AGR building—where the gunman later perched—prior to the shooting.
Col. Paris told Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) that he believed the ESU officers were looking out a window on the second floor of the AGR building when they spotted 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, the suspected shooter, outside on the ground. When Mr. Crooks disappeared from view, the ESU officers joined with other municipal officers to search for him.
“That’s based on interviews that we’ve conducted,” Col. Paris said.
The building from which the shooter fired at former President Trump and other nearby structures should have been inside the security perimeter, Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, testified.
“I look at an assessment of the situation and look at all of the elevated positions that were in place, they should have been part of a contained area,” he said.
Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.), after noting that he has no law enforcement expertise, said he believes the security perimeter should have been broader.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) asked the Pennsylvania State Police commissioner how many rounds the gunman fired off before he was killed by a Secret Service sharpshooter.
Col. Christopher Paris said he believed eight shell casings were recovered from the scene.
The Pennsylvania State Police has requested the Secret Service’s operations plan for the July 13 rally but have yet to receive it, Col. Christopher Paris told lawmakers.
The Pennsylvania police commissioner said that Pennsylvania police can typically offer K-9 sweeps for events but it did not provide one for the rally.
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said it’s his understanding that no sweep occurred.
Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the U.S. Secret Service, resigned on July 23.
“I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she said in the email to Secret Service staff. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas soon after said he was appointing Ronald Rowe, the service’s deputy director, to serve as acting director.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday.
The Pennsylvania State Police provided the U.S. Secret Service with all requested resources for the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally at which former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated, the commissioner told the House Homeland Security Committee on July 23.
According to the written and in-person testimony of Col. Christopher Paris, 32 state police officers were assigned to help secure the July 13 event. Those officers provided escorts for the former president’s motorcade, manned posts surrounding the perimeter, performed roving patrols of the area, and managed the primary Secret Service command post.
Col. Paris added that state police are now conducting a criminal investigation in coordination with the FBI to identify all those responsible for the shooting. Officers are also investigating the Secret Service sniper who killed the would-be assassin.
More than 100 interviews have been carried out in the joint FBI–Pennsylvania State Police probe into the assassination attempt of former President Trump, Pennsylvania Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris told lawmakers in a Capitol Hill hearing.
Investigators have also gathered more than 1,000 pieces of evidence.
“As this is an ongoing investigation, I may be unable to comment on all aspects of it,” Col. Paris said in prepared opening remarks. “Additionally, any information I may offer today should be considered preliminary in nature and not final.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on July 23 announced the formation of a House Task Force to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
The announcement follows the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which the former president and 2024 Republican nominee was shot in the ear. One rallygoer was killed and another two were injured in the shooting.
“The security failures that allowed an assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life are shocking,” Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jeffries said in a joint statement.
The House Homeland Security Committee holds a hearing on “Examining the Assassination Attempt of July 13” at 10 a.m. ET on July 23.
WASHINGTON—The House Oversight Committee kicked off its investigation of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on July 22 by demanding answers from Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.
Ms. Cheatle declined to provide the committee with some key details as to how suspected shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, managed to come close to a kill shot on a former president before being killed by a Secret Service sharpshooter.
However, the director did confirm certain details, including when the gunman was deemed a “threat” by agency personnel.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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