A Secret Service counter drone operator futilely searched the internet for the location of the rooftop President Trump’s would-be assassin was spotted on as shots rang out at the July 13, 2024, campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to a Department of Homeland Security inspector general report released Thursday.
The report concluded Secret Service “missed multiple opportunities to detect, prevent, and disrupt” deranged gunman Thomas Crooks’ attempted assassination of Trump, including shocking communications failures that resulted in the president’s protective detail never being warned that an armed man had climbed onto the American Glass Research International (AGR) complex’s roof just 155 yards from the stage.
At 6:09 p.m., local law enforcement called the Secret Service and Pennsylvania State Police communications room “warning them of a suspicious person on the AGR complex’s roof,” according to the damning DHS report.
However, the Secret Service communications room supervisor and the agency’s counter drone operator “did not ask for the AGR complex’s location …. did not immediately identify it as a risk” and the supervisor did not even “recall learning that the suspicious person was on the roof” because he had “delegated communications about the suspicious person to the counter drone operator because it was a ‘busy time’ on Secret Service radios and the counter drone operator was sitting near him and offered to help,” the 64-page report continued.
Not knowing where the rooftop was situated relative to the rally site, the Secret Service counter drone operator apparently resorted to Google.
“Instead of asking local law enforcement personnel for the AGR complex’s location, the counter drone operator searched online for it, and was still searching when Crooks fired his first shots,” the report determined.
At 6:11 p.m. – just two minutes after Secret Service was informed a gunman was on the roof of the building – Crooks fired eight shots at Trump, grazing the president’s ear, wounding others and killing one rally attendee.
“Ultimately, although members of the local law enforcement communications room were increasingly concerned by the presence of a suspicious individual as early as 5:42 p.m.,” the report continued, “Secret Service communications room personnel did not identify Crooks as an urgent threat before he fired shots.
“Moreover, Secret Service decision-makers responsible for protecting President Trump while on stage at the Butler event were not made aware of Crooks’ presence at any time.”
The agency’s failure to establish a joint communications room with local law enforcement – which was receiving reports about a suspicious person at the rally later identified as Crooks – resulted in 102 radio transmissions about the gunman going unheard by Secret Service personnel.
A 5:42 p.m., radio transmission from local law enforcement warning, “we had a younger white male long hair lurking around the AGR building, he was viewed with a rangefinder sighting the stage … we lost sight of him,” was among several increasingly frantic communications that went unheard by Secret Service.
“I have someone on the roof with white shorts,” local cops radioed at 6:08 p.m.
“He’s armed, I saw him. He’s laying down,” an officer radioed at 6:11 p.m., just moments before Crooks opened fire, followed by, “You need to deploy to the AGR building … male on the roof with a long gun. Shots fired!”
Secret Service received only five phone calls and three text messages about Crooks, according to the report.
“As a result, Secret Service members did not alert President Trump’s protective detail about concerns of a suspicious person,” the findings concluded.
The report also found Trump’s campaign staff waved off Secret Service from positioning trucks between the AGR building and the stage ahead of the rally over concerns it would block cameras.
“On July 12, 2024 … the site agent counterpart told us she proposed placing the trucks between the AGR complex and the stage, but protectee staff denied the request because the trucks would be ‘too close to [President Trump’s] press shot,’” the DHS report found.
“The site agent counterpart then proposed moving the trucks to a nearby location instead, which would block line of sight from a different area; protectee staff agreed.”
Crooks was shot and killed by law enforcement at the rally shortly after he opened fire.
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
