As the investigation into the shooting that nearly killed former President Donald Trump continues, local police and Secret Service agents are trading accusations — some overtly, some behind the scenes — over who is to blame.
Local law enforcement snipers from the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit (ESU), Beaver County’s SWAT team, were tasked with guarding the perimeter, including the American Glass Research building that Crooks had climbed to the top.
Some Secret Service agents believe that if a Beaver County law enforcement sniper had remained at his post — reportedly at a window overlooking the roof — he would have seen Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, climb onto the roof and get into a position to fire at former President Donald Trump.
The released video showed the window where the sniper would have been positioned and would have provided a clear view of where Crooks climbed out to fire at Trump.
BREAKING: Body camera footage from rooftop after assassination attempt on President Trump
Cops said a Secret Service sniper took several photographs of Thomas Crooks before the shooting. pic.twitter.com/E4dVx7SbwN
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 23, 2024
according to Conservative podcast host Benny JohnsonThe local police sniper was not positioned at the window because one of the team members had gone home early, another had left his post to investigate a call about a suspicious person, “Crooks,” hiding outside the building, and the third had gone to let in another sniper who had forgotten his building access card.
Johnson posted on X:
There was a three-man SWAT sniper team stationed at this location. One of the team members went home early. I don’t know why that was allowed, but it happened. The remaining two snipers in the room were alerted by the presence of a suspicious person. [Crooks] He was hiding outside the building, one of the team members had left his post to investigate, leaving only a single sniper on guard on the roof.
The members of the investigation team found nothing and, on their way back to their positions, realized they had left their access cards to the building. The last sniper with the security camera was to the left. [!!!] Rescue team members who are trapped outside.
The crooks climbed onto the roof and opened fire on Trump, but this fully equipped sniper nest, with a perfect view of the crooks’ assassination position, was left completely unmanned.
Important: The Secret Service was absent from the security briefing on the morning of the assassination attempt where such communications were supposed to be discussed.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 26, 2024
Johnson suggested that the Secret Service, which was in charge of the overall security planning for the event, was to blame for not leaving local police officers on the roof, for allowing a local sniper to leave his post, and for not stationing someone at the nearby water tower.
It is not clear who authorized the Beaver County ESU sniper to be inside the building instead of on its roof.
Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle Interview with ABC News on July 16, 2024, “A decision was made to secure the building from the inside,” she said, without saying who made the decision. She cited the safety factor of a “sloped” roof.
She later testified that on July 22, 2024, “surveillance was in place” on the roof, but did not say who was responsible for the surveillance.
“All I can say is that there was a plan in place to do surveillance, but we’re still working out the responsibility and who would be doing the surveillance,” Cheatle told House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.). He later told Rep. Byron Donald (R-Fla.) that “there was surveillance on the roof,” but declined to name the person in charge of surveillance. “I’m not going to give names in this situation,” he said.
Former Secret Service agent and conservative talk show host Dan Bongino said on his show on July 18, 2024 that the sniper was in the building because he thought he could keep an eye on it from the second floor, but it’s not clear who made that decision.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) said he was told by a whistleblower that at least one person was “specifically assigned” to the rooftop where Crooks was crawling “during the rally,” but that person “abandoned their post due to the heat.” The whistleblower also said that because of the heat, police stopped patrolling the building where the shooter was crawling and “instead posted security personnel inside the building.”
NEW YORK – A whistleblower said police officers were stationed on the roof on the day of the Trump rally but abandoned them due to the heat, and that police were supposed to patrol the building but instead chose to remain inside. pic.twitter.com/aIVNSPHUF6
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 22, 2024
The heat allegations were first raised by former Air Force pararescueman and X podcast host Brian Kimber.
From the source…pathetic. pic.twitter.com/EmMi96zT8a
— BKactual (@BravoKiloActual) July 15, 2024
The Beaver County ESU has publicly stepped up to defend itself, including the shooter. Exclusive interview permission They told ABC News on Sunday that they had no face-to-face encounters with members of the Secret Service that day and had no contact with the agency until after the shooting.
“Every time a member of the Secret Service arrived, there was supposed to be a face-to-face interview, but that didn’t happen,” Jason Woods, team leader for Beaver County’s ESU and SWAT sniper section, told ABC News. “So I think that was probably the defining moment. I started to think something was wrong because nothing was happening. There was no communication.”
Woods also reportedly called the event an “away game,” meaning his team wasn’t in charge and left security planning decisions up to Secret Service agents. “The Secret Service knew where we needed to be, and we were stationed there,” he said.
“Our directives, our marching orders, come from the Butler County EMS unit, which is under their command. Historically, they’ve been approved by the Secret Service,” Beaver County SWAT leader Mike Priolo told ABC News.
Priolo also said “the lack of patrols we witnessed in the area” was “our first indication that something was wrong with this,” and that as a result, SWAT officers would have to handle any emergency patrol-level incidents themselves.
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“The best analogy I’ve heard is that we are scalpels when asked to be used as hammers,” he said, “and that’s what we understood throughout the day.”
of The Washington Post report Local police reportedly told the Secret Service they did not have enough personnel to patrol outside the building.
Several other reasons have been cited as to why Beaver County ESU snipers were not on post.
Sergeant Gregory Nicol, one of the Beaver County ESU snipers manning a post on the second floor, claimed to ABC News that he “moved around the building and attempted to follow and monitor Crooks, who was outside,” but lost sight of him “as he descended to the first floor of the building. By that time, Trump had already taken to the stage,” Nicol said.
Nicol said he was still downstairs when the former president began his speech. He said he noticed rally attendees looking away from the podium and up to the roof of the AGR building, with some shouting that someone was on the roof. Nicol told ABC News he thought to himself, “Oh, they must have found the guy we were looking for up there. We’re all watching the police deal with him,” and he felt relieved.
“Then we heard gunshots,” he said.
A report from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) gave a different reason for why Nicole went downstairs. Preliminary findings“AGR Sniper 1” Nicol went to the first floor of the building and “met a local police patrol and alerted them to Crooks’ presence.”
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