WASHINGTON – State and local law enforcement told lawmakers on Thursday about the Secret Service 's failure to secure the area around the rally site where former President Donald Trump was shot in an attempted assassination in Pennsylvania in July.
There was no plan to secure the building where the gunman was positioned with a clear line of sight to the location where Trump would speak, the officials told the first meeting of a congressional task force investigating the shooting. Secret Service officials allowed Trump to take the stage even as local police were flagging concerns about a suspicious person.
"It was not a single mistake that allowed (Thomas Matthew) Crooks to out-maneuver one of our country's most elite group of security professionals," said task force chairman Mike Kelly, R-Pa. Instead, the Secret Service failed to make a cohesive plan for the law enforcement partners, didn't close down the grounds near the rally site, and didn't communicate effectively even in moments of crisis, he said.
"Altogether, these other failures led to a dysfunctional security situation that took the life of Mr. Comperatore, injured two others, and nearly claimed the former president's life."
Trump was grazed by a bullet that took off a piece of his right ear in the attack, and Pennsylvania firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed as he tried to shield his family from the attack. Two other men were injured.
The hearing comes the day after a Senate committee released its investigative report into the July assassination attempt. Those findings, from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, also said the Secret Service had no plan to secure the building where Crooks took aim. It also showed there was no clear chain of command and other security lapses at the event.
The congressional hearing also comes after a second likely assassination attempt against the former president earlier this month at his golf club in Florida. The House's task force has expanded its investigation to also look at security lapses related to that attempt.
Edward Lenz, a commander with the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, said his unit was not asked by the Secret Service officials leading security to lock down the building where the shooter perched, or the perimeter of the area. Instead, police snipers looked into the crowd where attendees had already been screened.
Still, a local police officer spotted several suspicious people near the building and relayed the information to patrol officers posted along the perimeter of the rally site, Lenz said. Another sniper took a photo of the man using a rangefinder pointing toward the stage and shared it with state police, the county sheriff's office, local police and the Secret Service.
That information made it possible for the sniper to quickly identify and take out the shooter once shooting began, Lenz said. However, lawmakers questioned why Trump was allowed to take the stage given the suspicions.
"The communication between the Secret Service and local and state partners was disjointed and unclear," said ranking member Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. "The Secret Service must do better."
Local police did not have a radio connection with the Secret Service and were scrambling to try to communicate with them in the lead up to the shooting, area officials said. Task force member Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., characterized the communication strategy as "making it up as you go along."
Patrick Sullivan, a retired former Secret Service agent, said the security failures that have come to light are "shocking and infuriating." He argued the Secret Service should have more authority to demand information from other law enforcement officials.
Drew Blasko, an officer with Butler Township Police Department, John Herold, a lieutenant with the Pennsylvania State Police, and Allegheny County medical examiner Ariel Goldschmidt also testified to the committee.
The hearing came days after Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe released a five-page interim report on the investigation that also cited significant agency failures.
“This was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service,” Rowe told reporters Friday. “It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again.”
The July shooting kicked off intense scrutiny of the agency. Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned from her post amid withering criticism from bipartisan lawmakers at a House Oversight Committee hearing, during which she admitted the July 13 shooting was the biggest security failure in decades for the agency.
Some lawmakers have argued that the agency is understaffed and under-resourced, which contributed in part to the security lapse in July. Congress approved $231 million in additional funding for the Secret Service in the stopgap funding measure approved earlier this week.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Shocking and infuriating': Law enforcement officials testify on Secret Service failures in Trump rally shooting
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