Lead SWAT sharpshooter: Group had ‘no communication’ with Secret Service prior to Trump shooting
'We were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the snipers whenever they arrived, and that never happened'
The lead sharpshooter of the SWAT Team working alongside the U.S. Secret Service during the attempted assassination against former President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the group had “no communication” with the agency until after the shooting.
In an interview with ABC News reporter Aaron Katersky, the local SWAT team from Beaver County, Pennsylvania, appeared on the outlet to discuss security concerns from the day around the assassination attempt against Trump. On the day of the rally, the SWAT group was positioned within the second floor of the building that shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks later used throughout the day to shoot from, with the lead sharp shooter noting that the SWAT team was supposed to receive a “face-to-face briefing” with the Secret Service agents when they had arrived on site; however, it never happened.
“We were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the Secret Service snipers whenever they arrived, and that never happened. So I think that that was probably a pivotal point where I started thinking things were wrong because that never happened, and we had no communication with the Secret Service,” the lead SWAT sharpshooter said in the interview.
Katersky then pressed the lead sharpshooter of the team on his statement, asking if he had no communication from the Secret Service “at all on that Saturday.” The SWAT leader clarified that there was nothing from the agency “until after the shooting.”
“And by then —” Katersky jumped in before the SWAT sharpshooter said, “It was too late.”
WATCH:
Katersky continued to detail how the local SWAT team had identified Crooks as “suspicious” prior to the shooting, sending texts with a description and pictures of the 20-year-old. However, none of the information was relayed to Secret Service leaders due to the lack of communication between the groups.
The SWAT team had been assigned to the second floor of the American Glass Research Building 6 by the Secret Service and could only see into the crowd at the Trump rally. Katersky noted the team relayed that their lack of seeing Crooks was not due to the roof being sloped or hot weather but was at the fault of where they were placed by the Secret Service.
Following the attack against Trump, former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle received a wave of backlash as reports continued to lay out the multiple security lapses from the day. Despite the immediate calls for Cheatle to resign, she had remained firm in her position until July 23.
Cheatle handed in her resignation a day after her testimony before the House Oversight Committee, in which both Republican and Democratic lawmakers blasted the director for the security lapses during the event.
“I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” Cheatle said in a staff email obtained by The Associated Press. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”
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