Snipers Positioned in Way That They Couldn’t See Trump Shooter: Officials

The stage where former President Donald Trump was standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pa., on July 14, 2024. Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Snipers were positioned in a building near former President Donald Trump’s rally in a way that they could not see Thomas Crooks, the man who fired at Trump, local officials said on July 31, rebutting testimony from the U.S. Secret Service’s acting director.

“Where our people were was the far-right side of the AGR building. Their views in no way could have seen Crooks without pushing their heads outside the window and looking back,” Detective Patrick Young, who heads the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit, told CNN.

“The videos and the exhibits presented to Congress are purely wrong as to what they’d actually seen,” he added.

Ronald Rowe Jr., the Secret Service’s acting director, said during recent testimony before U.S. Senate committees that snipers could have seen Crooks if they looked in a certain direction.

“I cannot understand why there was not better coverage or at least somebody looking at that roofline when that’s where they were posted,” Rowe told senators as he showed images from his team’s visit to the site where the rally was held in Pennsylvania on July 13. “Looking left, why was the assailant not seen?”

The snipers were positioned in a second-story room that overlooked sections of the rooftops of a series of buildings, including the American Glass Research building, from which Crooks ultimately fired a rifle, according to authorities. At least one of the snipers later left the post to look for Crooks after he was identified as a suspicious person due to his milling about and, later, using a rangefinder.

Young told CNN that the snipers were told to remain hidden, so they could not stick their heads out of the window of the room. Photographs shown by Rowe during the hearing displayed the window, which was closed during the rally but opened after the shooting, he said.

Screens were on the windows behind which the snipers were stationed, keeping them hidden from observers, according to Nate Bible, the district attorney for Beaver County.

The snipers were told to watch people before and after they went through a security checkpoint, not the rooftop or other parts outside the perimeter, he said.

“Our guys were in a covert sniper position, you know. They’re set back a couple feet from the window,” the district attorney told Fox News. “So, you know, in order to see on that roof, they would have had to hang out, hang outside, and in doing so, give up their position.”

The Beaver County officials also said that the Secret Service did not contact them before Rowe testified to Congress. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he learned that during his trip to the scene of the shooting and found the disclosure alarming.

The Secret Service did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump, who was struck with a bullet in the ear, has made a string of public appearances since the shooting, including a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Wednesday night.

Two others were wounded in the shooting: James Copenhaver and David Dutch, were released from the Allegheny General Hospital in late July. A third man, firefighter Corey Comperatore, died.

The Secret Service has said that one of its counter-snipers, who was posted on a building closer to the rally stage, took Crooks out after the shooter fired multiple rounds.

US Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe, Jr. (2nd R), and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate (R) show a photo of the shooter's position at the Capitol, on July 30, 2024. Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

Rowe said that he could not defend the security failures and that the agency was making changes in the wake of the assassination attempt.