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The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, July 31, 2024, p. 28
Washington. Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told lawmakers on Monday that he considers the failure to secure the rooftop used by the gunman in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump indefensible, and criticized local law enforcement agencies for failing to circulate urgent information before the attack and failing to adequately secure the site.
Rowe also noted that he recently traveled to the site of the attack and said that what he saw made me feel ashamedHe claimed the attack amounted to a fault on several levelsincluding lack of imagination.
His testimony was the most detailed catalog of errors and miscommunications among law enforcement agencies yet produced by the Secret Service, with Rowe taking the blame for his own agency’s omissions while repeatedly criticizing local law enforcement for failing to share information that a gunman, later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was seen on a rooftop near the rally site minutes before the July 13 bombing in Butler, Pennsylvania.
They trusted the local police
“We assumed that state and local agencies would have him covered,” Rowe said. “We assumed there would be a uniformed presence, there would be enough eyes to cover him, there would be sniper teams” on the building from whose roof Crooks fired less than 150 yards from the stage where Trump was speaking.
Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was hit in the ear by a bullet or a fragment in the assassination attempt; one rallygoer was killed and two others were wounded before the assailant was killed by gunfire from a Secret Service sniper.
Much of the hearing between the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees focused on what Rowe said was inadequate information received by Secret Service personnel in the hour before the attack, including the fact that Crooks had been seen on the roof.
Local law enforcement officers spotted a suspicious-looking man walking near metal detectors, but eventually lost track of Crooks before he climbed onto the roof of an SGR International Inc. building. Shortly before the shooting, a local officer climbed onto the roof to investigate. Crooks pointed his rifle at him and the officer retreated.
