Spotty cellular service, malfunctioning technology and unused equipment contributed to a major communications breakdown during the rally where a gunman tried to kill Donald Trump just when law enforcement needed to share information the most, the top Secret Service official said. Among other problems, there were no Secret Service agents inside a command post set up by local police ahead of the July 13 rally, meaning critical information couldn’t easily get to the agency protecting the former president. “It is plainly obvious to me that we didn’t have access to certain information,” acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said, reports the Wall Street Journal. Urged by lawmakers to share more information publicly, Rowe offered new glimpses into the security failure at the rally in western Pennsylvania, where a 20-year-old gunman was able to access a rooftop with a clear line of sight to Trump and open fire with an AR-15 rifle. A spectator was killed, two others were injured and Trump suffered a bullet wound to the ear.
Officers had spotted gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks and identified him as suspicious about an hour before the shooting, but lost sight of him. An officer who finally saw him on the roof with a gun notified other law-enforcement agencies over a radio system. That radio message never got to Secret Service agents, and within 30 seconds Crooks opened fire. “That vital piece of information…did not make it over,” Rowe said. Further complicating matters, some officers were communicating with each other in multiple ways, such as by cellphone and text message, while others were using a radio system. That radio system had been flooded with calls for people needing help, especially given the extreme heat of the day. “The interoperability challenge, it’s not an easy fix,” Rowe said. “It’s not as simple as just trying to figure out the local frequency of the agency you’re working with and then typing that into your radio network. It requires a substantial technical fix.” Additionally, a technical issue prevented the Secret Service from deploying a counterdrone system sooner that might have helped locate the gunman, who flew his own drone in the vicinity within two hours of the rally. Officials meant to start using the technology at 3 p.m. but couldn’t get it operating until after 5 p.m. The agency declined an offer from a local police force to launch a drone, Rowe said. He added that the agency’s review of the shooting would examine why that offer was declined.
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