Local police officers complained about the Secret Service’s failure to protect a nearby rooftop moments after would-be Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks fired eight shots into the crowd at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pa last month.
“I f—ing told them that they needed to post guys f—ing over here…I told them that f—ing Tuesday,” a Butler Township officer said in body-camera audio obtained by the Wall Street Journal. “I talked to the Secret Service guys. They’re like, ‘Yeah, no problem. We’re going to post guys over here.'”
In another video, a police officer referred to a suspicious person as “a gentleman with a flat face that we were looking for earlier. He was creeping people out.”
“He was watching people out in the woods by the water tower. I’m not sure he is the gentleman down or not.”
The footage shines new light on security failures that allowed Crooks to climb onto the rooftop of a nearby American Glass Research (AGR) building and fire eight shots into the crowd, wounding Trump’s right ear and killing former fire chief Corey Comperatore. Two other victims, Marine veteran David Dutch and retiree James Copenhaver, were also wounded during the shooting. A Secret Service counter-sniper gunned Crooks down seconds after he fired into the crowd.
Roughly ten minutes after the shooting, an officer went into the AGR building and said to a colleague “I thought you guys were on the roof. I thought it was you. I thought it was you.”
“No,” the other officer replied, explaining how no officers were on the roof.
“What the f—,” the officer shot back. “Why were we not on the roof? Why weren’t we?”
The Secret Service’s failure to secure the Trump rally is one of the greatest security lapses in American history, and continues to receive scrutiny from congressional investigators and whistleblowers. Acting Secret Service chief Ron Rowe testified last week that the failures were indefensible and vowed to implement reforms to ensure nothing like it ever happens again.
Rowe said agents did not know Crooks was on the rooftop with a weapon until after he shot into the crowd and repeatedly suggested that Secret Service personnel believed local law enforcement were handling a “suspicious” person on the premises. Secret Service agents were under the impression that local law enforcement had the issue covered, deferring entirely to them instead of double-checking.
Local law enforcement first discovered Crooks more than 90 minutes before the shooting but were slow to act, not realizing he had a firearm on hand, and sent a picture of him to Secret Service a half hour before the shooting. Rowe acknowledged the monumental communication breakdown and promised to reform how the Secret Service coordinates with local law enforcement moving forward.
Moreover, poor phone service at the Trump rally meant that the Secret Service was unable to fly drones around the perimeter to identify Crooks beforehand. Somehow, Crooks himself was able to fly a drone around the perimeter for eleven minutes beginning at roughly 3:50 p.m., the FBI has determined as part of its ongoing investigation into the gunman. The Secret Service declined an offer from local law enforcement to a fly drone around the area on their behalf, Rowe confirmed.
Crooks, 20 practiced his rifle shooting at a local gun range for nearly a year leading up to his failed attempt on Trump’s life last month, newly released records show.
Crooks visited Clairton Sportsmen’s Club a total of 43 times after becoming a member on August 10, 2023, and spent almost all of his time at the club practicing on the rifle range, according to sign-in records the gun club turned over to the office of Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) upon request.
The records provide new insights into Crooks’s preparation ahead of his shooting at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13th,
In the first four months of his membership, Crooks went to the gun range 20 times. Throughout 2024, Crooks went three to six times per month, with roughly 80 percent of the visits for rifle practice, the records indicate. Even on holidays such as Christmas Day, Valentine’s Day, and Halloween, Crooks practiced his shooting skills at the gun range.
At the Trump rally, Crooks had two explosives in his car that were only discovered after the shooting. He visited the site of the rally three times, once a week before the shooting and twice on the day of. His last trip to the gun range was on July 12, the day before the shooting.
The FBI believes Crooks was a loner and did not have any co-conspirators. Thus far, a motive has not been determined, but Crooks did read news articles on public figures leading up to the rally. He also researched the assassination of then-president John F. Kennedy to find out how far away gunman Lee Harvey Oswald was from Kennedy’s motorcade.