The U.S. Secret Service failed to receive 102 local radio transmissions regarding the gunman who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump at a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a government watchdog report disclosed on Thursday.
The agency remained unaware of these critical communications on July 13, 2024, due to its failure to establish a joint communications room with local law enforcement.
Local authorities were actively receiving reports about the search for a suspicious person, later identified as Thomas Crooks.
“Instead, we found that the Secret Service received only five phone calls and three text messages about Crooks,” the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s report noted. “As a result, Secret Service members did not alert President Trump’s protective detail about concerns of a suspicious person.”
Crooks, who was shot and killed by law enforcement at the rally, opened fire while Trump was speaking on stage. A bystander was killed and others were injured, including Trump, when a bullet grazed his ear.
Crooks had accessed a nearby rooftop with a direct line of sight to Trump.
Recommendations in the inspector general’s report covered such areas as information sharing and addressing “line of sight vulnerabilities” ahead of events.
In a statement, the Secret Service said that it concurred with the inspector general’s recommendations.
“Many of these recommendations were already identified … and have since been implemented as part of our ongoing reform efforts,” a spokesperson said.
The report found Crooks flew a drone over the area hours before he carried out the shooting. The flight was undetected because the Secret Service counter drone system was inoperable, it said.
The counter drone system was manned by a single “under-trained” operator who did not test it before the event, according to the inspector general.
It took the operator hours to attempt to fix the issue, according to the report, which said during this time the suspect conducted his nearly nine-minute drone flight undetected.
Thursday’s report was the latest in a series of investigations by government watchdogs and congressional panels that identified major shortcomings in the Secret Service’s security arrangements for the event.
