Officers left post to go look for Trump rally gunman before shooting, state police boss says
WASHINGTON — Two local police officers stationed at the complex of buildings where a gunman was opened fire on former President Donald Trump left to search for the man before the shooting, the head of the Pennsylvania State Police said Tuesday, raising questions about whether a key post was left unattended when the gunman climbed onto a roof.
Pennsylvania State Police Col. Christopher Paris told a congressional committee that two officers from the Butler County Emergency Services Unit were stationed at a second-floor window of the complex of buildings that makes up AGR International Inc. They saw Thomas Matthew Crooks were acting suspiciously on the ground and left their post to join other police officers in looking for him, he said.
Paris said he did not know whether officers would have been able to see Crooks climb onto the roof of an adjacent building if they had stayed near the window. Video taken by a lawmaker who witnessed the shooting Monday showed that a second-story window of the building had a clear view of the roof where Crooks opened fire; it was unclear whether the video showed the window where the officers were stationed.
The Pennsylvania State Police commissioner’s testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee offers new insight into security preparations for the July 13 Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, but also raises new questions about law enforcement decisions before Crooks opened fire.
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger, who oversees the emergency management agency, did not immediately respond to a text message from The Associated Press on Tuesday. A Secret Service spokesman did not respond to questions from the AP, including who ordered those agents to leave their posts.
The revelation comes amid growing questions about a multitude of security flaws allowing the 20-year-old gunman to climb onto the roof and fire eight shots from an AR-style rifle into the crowd shortly after Trump began speaking. One spectator was killed and two others were wounded. Trump suffered an ear injury but was not seriously injured.
Kimberly Cheatle, Director of the Secret Service resigned earlier on Tuesdaya day after she was reprimanded for hours by Democrats and Republicans over the agency’s failure to protect the Republican presidential nominee. Cheatle told lawmakers on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday that the assassination attempt was the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.
The Homeland Security Committee also had asked Cheatle to testify, but lawmakers said she declined. Cheatle’s name was written on a card on a table in front of an empty chair during the hearing, which began shortly before her decision to resign became public.
There are multiple investigations into the shooting by the Biden administration and lawmakers. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday they support a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempt on Trump’s life. The House could vote as early as Wednesday to create the task force, which would include seven Republicans and six Democrats.
Local police began searching for Crooks after they saw him acting strangely and carrying a rangefinder, a small device similar to binoculars that hunters use to measure the distance to a target. Police searched for him but did not find him near the building, and a local officer climbed onto the roof to investigate. The gunman turned and aimed his rifle at him. The officer did not — or was unable to — fire a single shot. Crooks opened fire on the former president seconds later, officials said.
Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service had been alerted to a suspicious person two to five times before the shooting, but that there was no indication at the time that he had a weapon. She also revealed that the roof from which Crooks opened fire had been identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally. Cheatle said that Trump would never have taken the stage if the Secret Service had known of an “actual threat,” but Crooks was not considered a “threat” until seconds before the shooting began.
Authorities are hunting for clues about what motivated Crooks, but have found no ideological leaning that could explain his actions. Investigators who searched his phone photos of Trump foundBiden and other top administration officials and discovered that he had looked up the dates for the Democratic National Convention and Trump’s appearances. He also looked up information about major depressive disorder.
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Lauer reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press reporters Michael R. Sisak in New York and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed.