Secret Service failed to catch over 100 alerts before Trump rally shooting

A federal watchdog found that agents never received more than 100 tips about the gunman because no unified command post was created with local officers.

Secret Service failed to catch over 100 alerts before Trump rally shooting

Federal investigators have determined that the U.S. Secret Service overlooked more than 100 warning signs about the man who later fired at Donald Trump during a 2024 campaign stop. The reason, according to the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, was the absence of a shared communications hub between federal agents and local law enforcement. Aktuality.sk cites Reuters in its coverage.

In July 2024, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks used a semi-automatic rifle to shoot at the then-former president at an outdoor gathering in Butler, Pennsylvania. The barrage struck Trump in the upper right ear, claimed the life of one spectator, and wounded two more. Responding officers from the Secret Service then fatally shot Crooks.

The inspector general's review shows that municipal police kept getting calls about a suspicious person — eventually recognized as Crooks — but these never reached the federal protective detail. Without a joint operations room, 102 such notices slipped through. Agents on the ground only learned of five phone contacts and three SMS messages concerning the shooter. The report notes that Trump's bodyguards were therefore never warned about the suspect. From a rooftop close to the venue, Crooks had an unobstructed view of his target.

The probe also uncovered that the assailant operated a drone above the site for close to nine minutes shortly before the attack, yet nobody spotted it. The Secret Service's anti-drone equipment was offline because its sole handler was poorly trained and had neglected to run pre-event checks.

This document, released on Thursday, adds to a string of official and congressional inquiries into the near-fatal incident that have repeatedly exposed grave lapses in how the agency protected the candidate.

Source: Aktuality