WASHINGTON: The US Secret Service’s acting director said on Friday that police in Pennsylvania had warned that there was a man with a gun on a roof before the July 13 attempted assassination of Donald Trump, but the message did not reach its agents on time.

Local authorities and Secret Service agents were using different communication channels, which prevented the warning from getting through before a 20-year-old assailant opened fire on the Republican presidential candidate, Secret Service’s acting director Ronald Rowe told reporters.

“In the final 30 seconds — which has been the focus of what happened before the assailant opened fire —there (were) clearly radio transmissions that may have happened on that local radio net that we did not have,” Rowe said. “This was a Secret Service failure. That roof line should have been covered. We should have had better eyes on [that].”

In testimony to Congress on Tuesday, Rowe had blamed the failure on local law enforcement while also saying he was “ashamed” of the security lapse that occurred on the day of the shooting.

Rowe also noted that the agency had not been present in a command post set up by local law enforcement in Butler, Pennsylvania, for the outdoor campaign rally by the former president.

Rowe said the Secret Service plans to increase its use of surveillance drones following the attempted assassination. “We did not have a drone on-site” at the July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, said Ronald Rowe, who took over after the previous director resigned.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2024