Beaver County SWAT details communication breakdown during attempted assassination of Trump
A Beaver County SWAT sniper said his team had no contact July 13 with former President Donald Trump’s Secret Service detail before he spotted would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks scoping out a building with a range finder near the Butler County fairgrounds where the 20-year-old Bethel Park man later fired on Trump.
An hour after sniper Gregory Nicol warned security officials and command staff about Crooks, the alleged shooter opened fire at the political rally, grazing Trump’s ear with a bullet, killing a Buffalo Township firefighter and critically injuring two others.
Nicol told ABC News he noticed the young man in the gray T-shirt from his second-floor post inside the AGR International complex in Butler Township — about 200 yards away from the rally’s stage in Connoquenessing Township. Crooks allegedly fired multiple shots at Trump right above Nicol, from AGR’s roof.
“He was looking up and down the building. … It just seemed out of place,” Nicol, assistant leader of the Beaver County SWAT team, told ABC News. “It just didn’t seem right.”
The Beaver County SWAT team and their supervisors spoke with ABC News on Monday, marking the first time any key law enforcement personnel at the ill-fated Butler County rally provided firsthand accounts of what happened on the day of the shooting.
Nicol said he noticed an unattended bike and backpack — and saw Crooks looking up and around the AGR building, then pulling out from his pocket a range finder, an instrument that estimates an object’s distance.
He said he snapped a photo and warned fellow snipers from his team about the suspicious-looking man and the bike. Nicol also called it into a command group.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned in the wake of extensive criticism about security failures that day. Multiple law enforcement, internal, and congressional probes have been announced.
“This one is something that we’ll always carry with us,” assistant Beaver County SWAT leader Mike Priolo told ABC News.
Beaver County’s Emergency Services Unit and SWAT sniper section “were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the Secret Service members whenever they arrived, and that never happened,” said Jason Woods, the unit’s team leader.
The Secret Service was ultimately responsible for security at the event, but none of the SWAT team’s concerns apparently reached members of Trump’s security team. The Washington Post reported over the weekend that Secret Service agents have complained they were not made aware of the warnings.
A Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi declined to respond directly to the comments from local law enforcement. He said the agency “is committed to better understanding what happened before, during, and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure that never happens again. That includes complete cooperation with Congress, the FBI and other relevant investigations.”
This story is published as part of a collaboration with TribLive.
