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.
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.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY