An archive photo of Donald Trump being injured while campaigning for the US elections
The US Secret Service failed to receive 102 local police radio broadcasts about the gunman who attempted to assassinate US President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024.
It has not established a joint communications room with local law enforcement, according to a report released Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General.The report found that local law enforcement officers were exchanging information over the radio about a suspicious person, later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks. However, the Secret Service was largely cut off from those communications.Instead of receiving radio broadcasts, the agency was informed about Crocs through just five phone calls and three text messages. “As a result, members of the Secret Service did not alert President Trump’s security team about concerns about a suspicious person,” the inspector general’s report said, according to Reuters.The crooks opened fire while Trump was addressing his supporters at the July 13, 2024, rally. One spectator was killed and two others were injured, including Trump, who suffered a cut to his ear.
Crooks was shot and killed by law enforcement officers at the scene.Crooks gained access to a nearby rooftop that provided a direct line of sight to Trump before the shooting, the report said.Investigators also identified failures in the agency’s counter-drone operations. According to the report, Crooks flew a drone over the assembly site for approximately nine minutes in the hours before the shooting, but the flight went undetected because the Secret Service’s counter-drone system was inoperable.The system was reportedly operated by a single “poorly trained” officer who had not tested the equipment prior to the event. It took the operator several hours to attempt a repair, allowing Crooks to conduct a drone flight without being detected, the report said.The Inspector General recommended improving information sharing between agencies and taking stronger measures to identify and address “line-of-sight vulnerabilities” before public events.In response to the findings, the Secret Service said it agreed with the recommendations. “Many of these recommendations have already been identified… and have since been implemented as part of our ongoing reform efforts,” a Secret Service spokesperson said.