Officials provided new details regarding the timeline of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump and information about the shooter during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Acting U.S. Secret Service Director Robert Rowe, who assumed leadership of the agency following the assassination attempt last week, labeled the incident a “failure on multiple levels.”
“I will not wait for the results of those findings to assess where we failed that day, and will continue to take immediate steps to ensure we do not repeat those failures,” Rowe testified before the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, referring to the multiple investigations into the assassination attempt.
The shooting at a Trump rally on July 13 in Butler, Pa., sent shockwaves across the nation, triggering calls for accountability from the Secret Service responsible for protecting the 45th President. While officials ultimately subdued the 20-year-old assailant, Rowe expressed his bewilderment: “I cannot comprehend why there wasn’t better coverage or at least someone observing the roofline when that’s where they were stationed.”
Officials have yet to identify a motive, according to FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate. There is currently no indication that the shooter acted with any accomplices.
Here’s the information revealed during the Senate hearing on July 30.
The shooter’s timeline leading up to the shooting
Abbate stated that investigations are ongoing and details may be refined, but shared a current working timeline of events on the day of the Trump assassination attempt.
The shooter registered to attend the Butler, Pa. Trump rally on July 6. On that day, he conducted a Google search for “How far was Oswald from Kennedy,” referencing the individual who shot President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. The following day, the shooter visited the Butler farm area where the rally was scheduled to take place, indicating advanced planning according to Abbate.
The rally took place on July 13. At 1:30 p.m. that day, the shooter’s father provided his son with a rifle, believing it would be used at a sportsmen’s club, Abbate said. Approximately 25 minutes later, the shooter purchased ammunition while en route to the Trump event.
At 3:51 p.m., the shooter operated a drone about 200 yards from the Butler farm show grounds. Rowe testified that a counter-drone system was not deployed that day due to connectivity issues. “On this specific day, due to connectivity challenges … there was a delay,” he explained. Had the system been activated, “We might have potentially stopped him,” Roe said.
Local SWAT officers initially observed the assailant near the American Glass Research (AGR) building where the shooting occurred around 5:32 p.m., Abbate noted. At 5:38 p.m., a photo of the shooter was shared via text message within a group of local SWAT operators. Rowe later indicated that information regarding the shooter should have been disseminated through a radio channel, ensuring all officers had “situational awareness” of the shooter.
Officials temporarily lost sight of the shooter, during which he ascended to the rooftop of the AGR building. By 6:08 p.m., local law enforcement spotted the shooter on the roof, and a local police officer radioed that the shooter was armed with a long gun. Within the next 30 seconds, approximately eight shots were fired, based on the number of shell casings discovered by law enforcement.
A possible social media account
The FBI recently uncovered a social media account that they believe is associated with the shooter, according to Abbate. This account contained over 700 comments that “appear to reflect white supremacist and anti-immigration themes, advocating for political violence and described as extreme in nature,” Abbate said.
Officials are still verifying the account’s ownership, but Abbate emphasized the importance of sharing these new details due to the lack of information regarding the shooter’s motive.
Lack of communication between local and federal officers
Officials testified that information regarding the armed assailant was confined to local law enforcement channels, hindering federal agents from proactive measures against the shooter.
Rowe stated that the Secret Service was aware that local officers “were handling an issue on the former president’s right-hand side,” but did not receive information about the specific threat. “No information regarding a weapon on the roof was ever conveyed to our personnel,” Rowe said. He asserted that the Secret Service assumed local law enforcement was managing the situation.
Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan reported that local law officials indicated they could only communicate with a state command center and lacked direct communication with the Secret Service. Rowe confirmed he was working to “establish interoperability” between local and federal officers.