Route 68 business owners surprised by lack of communication before Trump rally
The week leading up to the Saturday, July 13 rally for former President Donald Trump was quiet on Route 68, to the surprise of the business owners near the Butler Farm Show grounds, where the event would take place.
Even after the shooting that killed a Buffalo Township man and wounded three other men, including Trump, Brandon Marinelli, a State Farm insurance agent whose office is a few hundred feet from the farm show grounds, has not received much information from law enforcement.
Marinelli’s office in Connoquenessing Township was open for normal business hours up to Friday, then closed Saturday and Sunday, and he said he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, but was not particularly looking.
“I thought there would be more preparation for not only the security measures, but just for something so big coming to Butler,” Marinelli said. “We didn't have any law enforcement or anybody who came in to prep us or here scoping it out.”
Local groups involved in organizing Saturday’s event said the rally came together relatively quickly. Cindy Hildebrand, chairwoman of the United Republicans of Butler County, said the organization heard the rally would be July 13. Other information on the event was sparse until Thursday and Friday.
On July 4, Butler County Sheriff Mike Slupe his office provided some staff for Trump’s 2020 rally at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport in Penn Township.
Six deputies were present Saturday in Connoquenessing Township, Slupe said Tuesday, along with other law enforcement agencies.
“Bottom line, there were numerous Butler County law enforcement agencies and other assets on site,” he said.
Deputies were assigned areas of responsibility within the inner perimeter, by metal detectors and the command post. After the shooting ended, Slupe said they helped assist people in evacuations and clearing nearby buildings.
“I am in charge of the (deputies) and no other law enforcement agency,” he said.
Police were reimbursed through the taxpayer base, Slupe said.
A week before the rally, Slupe said a meeting planned by the Secret Service was held with law enforcement agencies to go over responsibilities and event details. His deputy chief also attended a walk-through of the event, he said.
Barry Cummings, owner of Cummings Candy & Coffee, which has a shop at 530 Evans City Road, found out about the rally through online sources and word of mouth, even though the shop is less than a half-mile from the farm show’s entrance.
Cummings said although he and the coffee shops have never dealt with an event of the rally’s magnitude, he expected more communication from law enforcement on how his business would be affected. He said the shop normally closes at 3 p.m., but he added a few more staff members to the schedule just in case it saw increased patronage from rallygoers.
Even after the shooting at the rally, Cummings said communication has been sparse, and he has been getting information from unofficial sources. The shop is open, but it took some time to figure out when the portion of road would be open, Cummings said.
“Nothing was really official,” Cummings said of law enforcement communications. “We didn't get any notification aside from what was public knowledge.”
The Evans City Road shop didn’t reopen until Monday, because the road remained closed Sunday.
“I got word at 4:30 Monday morning that the road was open,” Cummings said. “We opened up an hour and a half later.”
A store manager of M&R Power Equipment said the only notice the store received before the rally was from a Connoquenessing Township zoning officer who came to the store across from the farm show grounds to ask if it would remain open during the rally.
Following the shooting, Marinelli got word Evans City Road could be closed until Tuesday or Wednesday, so he began making plans for he and his staff to work from home. However, he also heard Monday morning the road had reopened, and got back to his office later that day.
“We came in Monday and there was a lot going on. They still had it shut down near AGR,” Marinelli said. The shooter fired from the rooftop of the AGR building.
