Watchdog faults Secret Service for missing 102 radio calls during 2024 Trump shooting

• The Secret Service missed 102 local radio calls about the gunman during the 2024 Trump rally due to lack of a joint communications room with local police.
• The shooter, Thomas Crooks, fired from a rooftop, killing one bystander and injuring others, including Trump, who was grazed by a bullet.
• A drone flown by Crooks went undetected because the Secret Service’s counter drone system was inoperable and managed by an under-trained operator.

WASHINGTON – The US Secret Service did not receive 102 local radio transmissions about the gunman who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump at a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to a government watchdog report released on July 2.

The agency was unaware of the transmissions on July 13, 2024, because it had failed to establish a joint communications room with local law enforcement, which was receiving reports about the search for a suspicious person later identified as Thomas Crooks, according to the report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector-general.

“Instead, we found that the Secret Service received only five phone calls and three text messages about Crooks,” the report noted.

“As a result, Secret Service members did not alert President Trump’s protective detail about concerns of a suspicious person.”

Crooks, who was shot and killed by law enforcement at the rally, opened fire while Trump was speaking on stage. A bystander was killed and others were injured, including Trump, when a bullet grazed his ear.

Crooks had accessed a nearby rooftop with a direct line of sight to Trump.

Recommendations in the inspector-general’s report covered such areas as information sharing and addressing “line of sight vulnerabilities” ahead of events.

In a statement, the Secret Service said that it concurred with the inspector-general’s recommendations.

“Many of these recommendations were already identified... and have since been implemented as part of our ongoing reform efforts,” a spokesperson said.

The report found that Crooks flew a drone over the area hours before he carried out the shooting. The flight was undetected because the Secret Service counter-drone system was inoperable, it said.

The counter-drone system was manned by a single “undertrained” operator who did not test it before the event, according to the inspector-general.

It took the operator hours to attempt to resolve the issue, according to the report, which said during this time the suspect conducted his nearly nine-minute drone flight undetected.

The July 2 report was the latest in a series of investigations by government watchdogs and congressional panels that identified major shortcomings in the Secret Service’s security arrangements for the event. REUTERS