A report reveals numerous 'deficiencies' in the security preparations ahead of Trump's attempted assassination, in the most formal attempt by the Secret Service to catalogue its errors of the day.
Preliminary findings of a Secret Service investigation into the handling of Donald Trump 's attempted assassination in July have detailed wide-ranging security failures on the agency's part.
Those include an absence of clear guidance from the Secret Service to local law enforcement, the failure to fix line-of-sight vulnerabilities at the rally grounds that left Trump open to sniper fire and "complacency" among some agents, said Ronald Rowe Jr, the agency's acting director. The report details a series of "communications deficiencies" before the shooting by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper after firing eight rounds in Trump's direction from the roof of a building less than 140 metres from where Trump was speaking.
"The failure of personnel to broadcast via radio the description of the assailant, or vital information received from local law enforcement regarding a suspicious individual on the roof of the AGR complex, to all federal personnel at the Butler site, inhibited the collective awareness of all Secret Service personnel," the report said.
The report raises more serious questions about why no law enforcement were stationed on the roof Crooks climbed onto before opening fire. A local tactical team was stationed on the second floor of a building in the complex he fired from.Multiple law enforcement entities questioned the effectiveness of the team's position, "yet there was no follow-up discussion" about changing it, the report says.
Secret Service Assassination Attempt Thomas Matthew Crooks Republican Rally Philadelphia
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