Trump Assassination Attempt Hearing: Local Police Blame Secret Service for Security Failures
No one told local law enforcement to put a sniper team on the roof.
Butler County, PA, law enforcement offered more damning evidence against the Secret Service (USSS) during the first hearing with the House task force investigating the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Edward Lenz, sergeant of the Adams Township Police Department and commander of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, told the panel that the Secret Service never asked for a sniper team on the roof:
Across the two counterassault teams, the quick reaction force, the three sniper teams and support personnel we provided a total manpower of 44 persons, exceeding the number requested by the secret service.
At no point during the planning process was Butler County ESU asked to secure the AGR complex nor the perimeter surrounding that area.
At no point during the planning process was Butler ESU asked to deploy a sniper team to the roof of the AGR complex.
And at no point in our operations planned did we ever say that we would deploy a sniper team to the roof of the AGR complex.
OK, I get that the Secret Service failed, and they have the responsibility to protect the president.
But when you realize that the USSS left open places with a line of sight to the president, shouldn’t you have secured them without being told?
Again, I am not excusing the Secret Service. I’m just wondering why no one secured it, especially if they knew it should have been secured.
I highly doubt no one on either side didn’t realize that the Secret Service didn’t block that line of sight before or right at the beginning of the rally.
Edward Lenz of Butler County Emergency Services Unit:
"At no point during the planning process was Butler County ESU asked to deploy a sniper team to the roof of the AGR complex." pic.twitter.com/OAYGBWwLC4
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 26, 2024
Lenz also revealed that local law enforcement spotted the shooter. One local cop managed to stop the shooter, too.
A Beaver County sniper took a photo of the suspicious male near the AGR building and a photo of the shooter using a range finder pointing toward the stage, who was later identified as Crooks.
The sniper reported that information to the Pennsylvania State Police, Lenz explained. The FBI previously said this sighting occurred around 5:10 p.m. on July 13, one hour and one minute before Crooks began shooting.
Soon afterward, when it became clear that a threat was on the roof of the AGR building, an operator with Butler County ESU exited the red barn from behind the stage where Trump was speaking and monitored the AGR building area, Lenz said. He “quickly identified” where the shots were coming from, located the shooter, and fired one round at Crooks with his rifle, “which caused the shooter to recoil and briefly fall out of sight,” the Adams Township officer testified.
“He did this less than six seconds after shots began … at a distance of approximately 110 yards,” Lenz said.
A Secret Service agent fired the fatal shot but not before the shooter got Trump in the ear, killed firefighter Corey Comperatore, and injured James Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, 57.
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Comments
Trump Assassination Attempt Hearing: Local Police Blame Secret Service for Security Failures
As they should. The Secret Service is the responsible party. Anything they “delegate” to local law enforcement they must follow up on or otherwise have ways to make sure it happens. Command and Control goes through the Secret Service.
I blame the Secret Service and Mayorkas and Garland and Traitor Joe and Kamala and the whole of the treasonous dem leadership for “intentional negligence” that they employed (and continue to employ) in order to get Trump assassinated. They proved their intentions in this regard when they used Secret Service protection – or the refusal to provide such – as a political tool to stop RFK, Jr. from running.
It is clear and obvious that the word from the top was to deprive Trump of adequate protection so that one of the dems’ many, many lunatics could carry out the assassination.
Many people don’t realize that the USSS recently saved Hillary Clinton’s life.
They stopped a teenage in Ruby slippers from dousing her with a bucket of water.
What a world!
Locals cannot unilaterally deploy forces in a situation like this. All assignments have to be co-ordinated with the party responsible for site security so that they are not mistaken as threats. In Butler, that was the Secret Service.
and the dems blame lousy hit man hiring practices as for their continued misery
secret service responded:
we cannot be blamed for sloped roofs and golf courses
There seems to be a misconception about the Butler attempt. this was not mistakes or carelessness, Trump was intentionally made vulnerable so the assassin would not be interfered with.
What must be remembered is that the USSS was, uncharacteristically, understaffed that day. Much of Trump’s normal compliment of USSS agents were replaced by relatively untrained (by USSS standards) DHS agents. Was it the last minute visit nearby by Jill Biden?