Pennsylvania state troopers told lawmakers Thursday that a local officer's bullet ultimately thwarted the attempted assassin, Thomas Crooks, before the U.S. Secret Service shot and killed Crooks.
The testimony from Adams Township Police Department Sergeant Edward Lentz was delivered Thursday morning during a hearing by the House Trump Assassination Attempt Task Force, which is charged with investigating the July 13 shooting, the first of two recent assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump.
“We committed 44 personnel, including two counter-assault teams, a rapid response unit, three sniper teams, and support personnel, more than what was requested by the Secret Service,” Lentz, commander of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit (ESU), said in his opening remarks. “During the planning process, Butler County ESU was never asked to secure the AGR complex or the perimeter around it. During the planning process, Butler County ESU was never asked to station a sniper team on the roof of the AGR complex.”
Lentz added that the Butler County snipers inside the AGR building did not have visibility of the shooter from the roof of the AGR facility, and that was not their mission that day.
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From left, Butler County Emergency Services Unit Commander Sergeant Edward Lentz, Butler County Police Department Constable Drew Blasco, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. John Herold and former U.S. Secret Service Agent Patrick Sullivan are sworn in during the first hearing of the bipartisan congressional task force investigating the assassination attempt against former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
However, members of the rapid response unit noticed several suspicious individuals in the area, one of whom was determined to be the shooter.
A Beaver County sniper captured photographs of a suspicious man near the AGR building and of a gunman, later identified as Crooks, using a rangefinder to aim in the direction of the stage.
Lentz said the shooter reported the information to Pennsylvania State Police. The FBI previously said the sighting occurred around 5:10 p.m. on July 13, one hour and one minute before Crooks began firing.
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Thomas Crooks attends a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. (Senator Ron Johnson)
Soon after, when it became clear there was a threat on the roof of the AGR building, a Butler County ESU operator emerged from a red barn behind the stage where Trump was speaking and conducted surveillance of the area around the AGR building, Lentz said. He “quickly identified where the gunfire was coming from,” located the shooter and fired one shot at Crooks with his rifle. “This caused the shooter to step back and disappear from view for a moment,” the Adams County police officer testified.
“He did this from a distance of approximately 110 yards, less than six seconds after the shooting began,” Lentz said.
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A Secret Service counter sniper then fatally shot and incapacitated Crooks on the roof of the AGR building, where he was in direct line of sight to Trump.
The FBI previously told reporters at a press conference that a Secret Service countersniper fired the fatal shot that killed Crooks about 15.5 seconds after he began shooting. The FBI also noted that local police officers who fired at Crooks at the time missed him.
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Butler County Emergency Services Commander Sergeant Edward Lentz testifies during the first hearing of the bipartisan congressional task force investigating the assassination attempt on former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
“With regard to the bullets fired by local officers, there is no forensic evidence to indicate that those bullets struck the suspect or the suspect's rifle,” FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek said in August.
The task force heard testimony Thursday from Lentz, who worked security at the July 13 rally, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on shooter Thomas Crooks and three local law enforcement officials in Pennsylvania, including a retired Secret Service agent.
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A diagram showing the sniper team locations for the assassination attempt at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. (Fox News)
Witnesses have largely suggested that the Secret Service's failure to provide guidance to local agencies ultimately led to a security lapse that allowed 20-year-old Crooks to take up position on a nearby rooftop and open fire on the former president, shooting him in the ear and killing rally-goer Corey Comperatore. Two other protesters, David Duch and James Copenhaver, were seriously wounded by Crooks' gunfire.
“If you knew there was a suspicious person there, why did you have President Trump on stage?” task force chairman Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) asked in his opening remarks.
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Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), chairman of the House of Representatives, leads the first hearing of the bipartisan congressional task force investigating the assassination attempt on former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, at the Capitol in Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
In his opening remarks, Sen. Jason Crow, the ranking Democrat from Colorado, said the Secret Service “failed on July 13” but that the agency has more responsibilities than it has had since it took over full-time presidential protection in 1902.
“The Secret Service is expected to perform its protective mission with zero errors and zero failures, but Congress must ensure the Secret Service has the resources it needs to do that job. It has been clear since July 13 that the Secret Service is overstretched,” Crow said.
“We thank Congress for addressing some of the U.S. Secret Service's most pressing needs in this heightened threat environment. This short-term funding will enable the U.S. Secret Service to better enhance security measures in the coming months, and we look forward to working with Congress on annual funding to provide our employees with the additional personnel, technology and equipment they need to do their jobs,” Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe said in a statement Thursday.
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On the day of the rally, Crooks parked his car and flew the drone between 3:50 and 4:00 p.m., about 200 yards from where the former president was scheduled to speak on July 13. FBI Director Christopher Wray At a congressional hearing on July 17, Crooks testified that he was at the rally for about 70 minutes on the morning of the assassination attempt.
Investigators found eight bullets on the roof where Crooks fired the shots.
