Secret Service Missed 102 Warnings Before Trump Shooting

The US Secret Service is facing criticism after an inspector general’s report found serious security failures during the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024.

At a critical moment, the agency was not monitoring local police radio traffic because it had failed to set up a joint communications room with local law enforcement. As a result, it missed 102 local radio transmissions about a suspicious person later identified as Thomas Crooks.

Instead, the Secret Service received five phone calls and three text messages about Crooks, but Trump’s protective detail was not alerted in time to concerns about the man who later opened fire while the president was speaking on stage.

The report also found that the Secret Service’s counter-drone system was inoperable and had been staffed by a single under-trained operator who did not test it before the event. As a result, Crooks was able to fly a drone over the area for nearly nine minutes without being detected before the shooting.

The Secret Service said it agreed with the inspector general’s recommendations and had already implemented many of them as part of its continuing reform efforts.

(Reuters, Max)