'A failure on multiple levels': Records reveal security lapses at Trump rally

Five days before Donald Trump took the stage at the Butler Farm Show grounds for a rally, the Secret Service was busy rolling out its strategy to protect the nation’s 45th president.

The advance planning was hardly unusual as part of the agency’s mission to guard the nation’s current and former leaders.

On July 8, Pittsburgh-based agents drove to Butler County to walk through the fairgrounds, accompanied by local police and Trump campaign staffers. Officers swapped phone numbers, carved up responsibilities and got the lay of the land.

The meeting addressed critical topics, according to congressional testimony Tuesday by Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. “The information I have at this time,” he said, “is that potential line of sight security issues and mitigation plans were discussed during this process.”

As the week progressed, SWAT team members from across Southwestern Pennsylvania were recruited to work the rally, which was expected to be a long day in scorching heat. By July 10, an eight-person group text chat had been created with officers selected from Beaver, Butler and Washington counties.

“Bring what gear you will need to sustain for the duration,” one of the team leaders wrote. “Butler talked about getting pizzas, but that may sit heavy in the heat. Bring a folding chair and sun lotion is about all I can tell you.

“More than likely we are going to be tucked somewhere out of site (sic).”

It all sounded so mundane. But at 6:11 p.m. July 13, with the crack of a rifle, the mundane became extraordinary.

Despite all the planning, metal detectors and heavy security, a scrawny 20-year-old from Bethel Park took his rifle and a range finder, clambered up on a warehouse roof with a line of sight to where Trump was speaking less than two football fields away, and began shooting.

Thomas Crooks got off eight shots, grazing the former president, killing a rally-goer and wounding two other attendees. Less than 16 seconds after Crooks began firing, a Secret Service countersniper code-named “Hercules” killed him.

The assassination attempt immediately secured a place in the history books. In short order, the Secret Service director resigned after a withering bipartisan interrogation on Capitol Hill. The agency continues to struggle to explain how a nursing home aide two years out of high school managed to carry out his nefarious plot right under the noses of law enforcement.

It was, Rowe told the Senate committee, “a failure on multiple levels.”

Some insight about the epic snafu came this week, when U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released text messages, helmet-camera footage and after-action reports his office received in the course of the congressional investigation.

An hour and 45 minutes before shots were fired, a sniper with Beaver County’s Emergency Services Unit spotted Crooks.

At that point, about 90 minutes before Trump took the stage, Crooks’ behavior was not especially alarming, Beaver County District Attorney Nate Bible told TribLive on Tuesday.

“He wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Bible said.

Bible has the Emergency Services Unit under his command and has debriefed its leader, who also is his chief detective.

In providing a timeline to the Senate on Tuesday, Rowe did not mention this early encounter — the first of several Crooks sightings.

Something about the pasty young man with the long hair and glasses bothered another sniper, Greg Nicol, who saw him.

“The guy looked weird — just sort of a gut reaction from 20 years in law enforcement,” Bible said

Taken together, the records released by Grassley show that local law enforcement officers — working as snipers and emergency response teams that afternoon — had recognized a potential threat, but neither they nor federal agents were able to neutralize it before Crooks took lethal action.

Rowe testified that one of his first steps in his new position was to go to the Butler Farm Show site.

“I went to the roof of the AGR building where the assailant fired shots and laid in a prone position to evaluate his line of sight,” Rowe said. “What I saw made me ashamed. As a career law enforcement officer, and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”

Several encounters

The first clues about Crooks came when sniper Jason Woods had to leave early.

“Guys I am out. Be safe,” Woods wrote in a group chat at 4:19 p.m.

Someone responded with a thumbs up emoji, and another wrote, “10-4 … (thank) you for your assistance today! Be safe!”

But seven minutes later, as Woods was on his way out of the building where his team was set up, he sent another text: “Someone followed our lead and snuck in and parked by our cars just so you know.

“I’m just letting you know because you see me go out with my rifle and put it in my car so he knows you guys are up there he’s sitting to the direct right on a picnic table about 50 yards from the exit.”

Again, someone responded with a thumbs up emoji and “roger that.”

At 5:10 p.m. Nicol spotted Crooks. By 5:14 p.m., he had taken pictures of him from above. And 24 minutes later, two images of Crooks, with his long, stringy hair and glasses, were sent in the group chat.

Law enforcement saw Crooks looking at his phone at news feeds at 5:32 p.m., the after-action report said, and officers confirmed at that time he had a range finder with him.

At 5:38 p.m., Nicol sent a message in the group chat with Butler and Washington counties law enforcement: “kid learning (sic) around building we are in. AGR I believe it is. I did see him with a range finder looking towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out. I lost sight of him. Also a bike with backpack sitting next to it in rear of building that was not seen earlier.”

At 5:40 p.m., “Call it in to command and have a uniform check it out.”

At 5:45 p.m., in a group chat of eight law enforcement officers, they sent images of Crooks and the bicycle and backpack that had been spotted.

“if you wanna send this to whoever at command if you have cell #” one person wrote.

Another responded six minutes later with “sent.”

Nicol called one of two command centers that Bible said were established at the fairgrounds. The one he contacted, Bible said, housed no Secret Service agents, only local law enforcement, so his report had to be relayed.

There still wasn’t a panic, Bible said. No one had seen any weapon.

Nicol, who was set up on the second floor of a low-slung building, part of a complex of warehouse-like structures, tracked Crooks’ movements outside. Nicol shuttled from window to window before finding two municipal officers outside, who were sent to locate the man, Bible said, before returning to his post.

“Greg didn’t know Crooks was out to do harm. Nobody ever saw a gun,” Bible said. “Until he heard those shots did anyone think we need to take this guy out.”

By 5:53 p.m., the Secret Service was fully engaged.

At that time, Rowe testified, the agency’s countersnipers were told that local law enforcement was searching for a suspicious person “lurking” around the AGR warehouse complex.

At 5:59 p.m., a minute before Trump took the stage, a message in the local law enforcement group chat said, “They’re asking for a direction of travel.”

But by that point, they had lost sight of Crooks.

“Not sure,” someone wrote at 6 p.m. “He was up against the building. If i had to guess towards the back. Away from the event.”

At 6:05 p.m., Crooks was spotted at picnic tables and seen with a backpack.

Over the next several minutes, a patrol officer outside was notified that the suspect was around the building on the side of the fairgrounds.

The officer climbed up on the roof to investigate but dropped back to the ground when Crooks pointed his rifle at him.

That’s when the suspect began to fire.

Surreal scene

Among the items released by Grassley on Monday was helmet-camera footage from Richie Gianvito, a member of the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit, taken shortly after the chaos.

At 6:26 p.m., the video showed the officers running toward the building where Crooks was killed.

“They’re saying Trump was shot,” one yelled. “He got hit.”

Two minutes later, as the officers squeezed through a gap in the chain-link fence secured with caution tape, one said, “We’ve got to figure out how this guy got here.”

Camera footage captured a surreal scene: heavily armed police in SWAT gear nonchalantly conferring with a Secret Service agent in a suit and sunglasses while nearby, Crooks’ body lay face down, a long trail of blood running down the rooftop, past his gray sneakers and black socks, his rifle perhaps 10 feet away.

Amid the din of a helicopter and chatter on the police radio, officers described finding a remote control on Crooks, no more than 6 inches long and powered by a 9-volt battery.

“They’re wanting pictures of it for the bomb squad,” someone said.

An officer described it as looking very similar to a garage door opener, with an extendable antenna and the numbers 1 through 12 on it.

Investigators reported finding home-made explosive devices in Crooks’ vehicle and another in his Bethel Park home.

“He has a range finder and cell phone, as well,” one officer said.

“If that phone starts ringing …” one officer instructed, “call me in case he’s got someone working with him.”

Defending his team

Bible said Tuesday that none of the various failures at the rally stemmed from his Emergency Services Unit.

“Our guys deserve a lot of credit for what they did that day,” Bible said. “We’re not going to let them take any unnecessary heat.

“My group did exactly what they were told to. I’m sure there could have been a better plan, and if there was my guys would have followed that.”

Bible believes at least one of the breakdowns was a failure to have a member of every law enforcement agency — from the top down — in the command center to ensure the timely relay of information.

He believes that Secret Service agents needed to be more readily available.

He also questions why the Secret Service wouldn’t have held Trump up from taking the stage after they got the information relayed from Nicol.

“He was already an hour late,” Bible said.

Bible also noted that his team was instructed to remain on the outside of the perimeter, looking in for suspicious people.

“It wasn’t their job to scan the outer perimeter,” he said. “That would be snipers inside who should be scanning outside.”

Bible also noted his team was never asked to be on the roof.

“That was never the plan,” he said. “They went where they were told. You don’t go rogue when the Secret Service puts you in position.”

Bible said that in the 17 days since the assassination attempt, not a single person from the Secret Service has interviewed the members of his emergency services unit.

In contrast, Bible said, they’ve been interviewed by the FBI, which is tasked with understanding Crooks’ motivation in the attack and whether he worked alone, and the Pennsylvania State Police, which is conducting the criminal investigation into the shooting of the man killed and the two wounded.

Bible noted one more problem. In his testimony, Rowe stated that on the morning of the rally, “a site briefing was conducted with Secret Service personnel and law enforcement partners supporting the event.”

But Bible said no members of the federal agency were present at the 9 a.m. meeting.

“It does seem like a problem to me,” he said.

The Secret Service did not respond to a detailed request for comment.