Local law enforcement officials, present in abundance, said they were not assigned security duties around a warehouse used by a man who tried to kill former President Donald Trump.

 

State Police and other security agencies investigate the scene after the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump in Butler, Pa., last week.Credit…Eric Lee/The New York Times

By Campbell Robertson, Kate Kelly, Jeanna Smialek and Hamed Aleaziz

Campbell Robertson and Jeanna Smialek reported from Butler, Pa., Kate Kelly from New York, and Hamed Aleaziz from Washington.

July 20, 2024

A key question after an assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump a week ago is why the Secret Service excluded from its secured zone a nearby warehouse the gunman used for his assault.

But another possible flaw in the Secret Service’s plans for the campaign rally at the farm show grounds in Butler, Pa., is emerging. The protection agency expected the sizable contingent of officers from local law enforcement agencies to contain any threats outside of the secured zone but assigned almost all those officers to work inside it, according to numerous interviews with local law enforcement and municipal officials.

None of the law enforcement agencies that assisted the Secret Service that day — the Pennsylvania State Police, the Butler Township Police Department, the Butler County Sheriff, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police or the multicounty tactical teams — say they were given responsibility for watching the zone outside the Secret Service’s security perimeter.

More specifically, the local law enforcement officials say that none of them were assigned to safeguard the complex of warehouses just north of the farm show grounds. The gunman was able to use the roof of the warehouse closest to the stage — about 450 feet from the podium — from which to shoot.

“I am going to defend those guys, because it wasn’t their job to secure the building,” Richard Goldinger, the district attorney in Butler County, who oversees the multicounty tactical teams that were used at the rally, on July 13.

Rather, an overwhelming majority of the dozens of local and state officers called upon to aid the Secret Service were given other duties at or inside the secured perimeter — an area that was protected by a fence, metal detectors and the Secret Service itself.

With law enforcement focused elsewhere, a would-be assassin roamed freely outside the perimeter. The only officers who got close to him were ones who left their designated posts to do so.

Their job had been to direct traffic.

The assigned responsibilities of the local law enforcement officers raise questions as to whether these resources were effectively deployed. The assignments also suggest there was a breakdown in the Secret Service’s communication with local law enforcement.

Secret Service Director Kimberly A. Cheatle will almost certainly face sharp questions about why that rooftop was left unguarded during a hearing with the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Monday. In an interview with ABC News this week, Ms. Cheatle said that local police — not the Secret Service — had been responsible for the area in which the warehouses were located.

“In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter,” Ms. Cheatle said. “And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter. There was local police in that building — there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building.”

Local agencies quickly issued statements disputing her account, saying that no officers were deployed in the building the gunman used. She has not spoken publicly since.

The gunman, later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa., shot at Mr. Trump, leaving his ear bloodied, and injuring three rally attendees, one fatally. A Secret Service sniper then shot and killed Mr. Crooks.

Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman, said his agency took responsibility. He said the agency would cooperate with all relevant investigations and was committed to better understanding what happened before, during and after the shooting.

But Mr. Guglielmi could not answer detailed questions about who was assigned to guard the area that included the warehouses, owned by AGR International.

On July 3, the Trump campaign called the Butler Farm Show, an annual fair and livestock show, to ask if Mr. Trump could rent their fairgrounds on July 13.

“It just seemed like an awful quick turnaround,” said Ken Laughlin, the president of the farm show’s board.

Mr. Laughlin said the campaign did not ask questions about the venue, which includes a few barns and a fence around the outside to stop people from attending the show without buying tickets.

Mr. Laughlin said that three agents from the Secret Service came to visit the grounds five days later, on July 8.

Image

An aerial view of the site. Local law enforcement officers were not assigned duties around the warehouse that the gunman climbed on top of.Credit…Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Retired agents said that collaborating with local law enforcement on unfamiliar sites is essential to their work.

“We cannot do our job without the locals; we come from nowhere and these are our partners,” said Beth Celestini, who worked on the protective details assigned to President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama before retiring in 2021.

In the days that followed their first site visit, the Secret Service made its requests for local assistance. The law enforcement presence at the site on the day of the rally — federal, state and local — ending up totaling more than 100 officers, a Secret Service official said.

Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told ABC News that his deputies were detailed to the metal detector areas and the command communications posts.

The State Police said in a statement that its approximately 30 to 40 troopers were there “to assist with securing the inside perimeter.” The statement said the agency “was not responsible for securing the building or property at AGR International.”

Tactical law enforcement teams compiled from Butler County and neighboring counties provided two counter assault teams and a quick response team. They were placed in the secured zone in case something went wrong.

In between the July 8 walk-through and another to finalize plans on July 11, the Secret Service had another request. It asked for two police sniper teams to supplement the two sniper units that were to be deployed by the agency’s own forces.

The emergency service units, another name for the county tactical teams, provided seven counter snipers. Four of the seven were given duties within the security perimeter, according to a local law enforcement official.

The three others took a position in a warehouse directly behind the one that Mr. Crooks ultimately used. Even those snipers were assigned to use their second-floor window view to survey the crowd inside the secured zone — not to watch over the warren of buildings where they were stationed, a law enforcement official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the continuing investigation.

The Secret Service’s counter snipers were placed on the barn rooftops, directly behind Mr. Trump.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had 16 Homeland Security Investigations agents at the rally assisting the Secret Service, according to two U.S. officials. One of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the continuing investigation, said the ICE agents were deployed in various roles such as screening members of the news media as they entered the secured area and helping direct traffic.

A Pittsburgh police spokeswoman said its team had officers on motorcycles to lead and follow Mr. Trump’s vehicle. “They were ABSOLUTELY NOT responsible for monitoring any buildings or anything else at the site,” the spokeswoman said in an email.

Officers from the Butler Township Police Department also helped out. But they were not security, according to Butler Township Commissioner Edward Natali.

“There were seven officers all assigned to traffic detail. Period!! The BTPD was NOT responsible for securing AGR or any other location,” Mr. Natali said in a post on social media. “Anyone who says so, reports on it, implies it, etc… is uninformed, lying, or covering their own backsides.”

Once there was notification of a suspicious person in the crowd outside of the secured area at the rally, four of the Butler Township police officers left their traffic posts and went hunting for him, officials who briefed members of Congress said earlier this week.

One was boosted up by another to peer over the edge of the warehouse building, only to find Mr. Crooks pointing a gun at him. The officer dropped off the ledge. Shots rang out soon after.