Transcripts from Butler Township officers reveal more insight into July 13 shooting
On Friday, Dec. 13, the 13-member congressional task force chaired by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, made public the transcripts from all 46 interviews it conducted with local, state and federal law enforcement personnel as part of its investigation into the assassination attempts on now President-elect Donald Trump.
Of those 46, five were conducted with personnel from the Butler Township Police Department, one of the local law enforcement agencies that played a major role in the events of the July 13 shooting of Trump during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds.
The five department members interviewed were a detective, a lieutenant and three patrol officers. In addition, one Butler Township patrol officer doubled as a member of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, a group consisting of officers from multiple police departments across the county.
The five interviews touched on some common threads, including planning oversights and communication breakdowns that led the shooter to fire eight shots in the direction of Trump. The names of all five individuals have been redacted, as well as other sensitive information within the transcripts.
Multiple members of the Butler Township police testified that the department’s main assignment on the day of the rally was to perform traffic control at the rally site and close down roads for Trump’s motorcade.
A Butler Township lieutenant told the task force that he participated in a walk-through of the site on July 11, two days prior to the rally. He said another law enforcement agency requested that he place additional Butler Township police officers near the AGR International building, which the lieutenant said he could not do, due to lack of manpower. He also said the conversation had more to do with preventing unauthorized access to the rally site from the ground than preventing access to the roof of the building, where the shooter was stationed.
At one point before the rally, patrol officer No. 1 — who also was serving with Butler County Emergency Services Unit as assistant sniper team leader — brought up their concerns about the AGR building to a Secret Service agent.
“Once I explained to them, ‘Hey, these areas need posted,’ they said, ‘Hey, we understand, we copy, we’ll take care of it,’” the officer testified. “Those elevated positions were no longer a concern because ... at that point in time, it was my understanding that there would be guys posted there. And so now we don’t have to worry about those additional positions, because as soon as anybody enters that ground, they’re going to be stopped.”
There was also discussion of putting up an opaque fence or barrier along the perimeter between the AGR property and the farm show grounds to prevent unauthorized entry onto the rally site. For unknown reasons, this did not come to pass.
Multiple Butler Township Police personnel also reported facing communication issues that day at the rally site, losing access to cellphone service and relying mostly on a radio network that was becoming increasingly jammed with transmissions.
“Prior to Trump arriving, I lost all service with T-Mobile,” said patrolman No. 2. “So it was radio for me.”
Patrolman No. 2 added that it was common for officers to communicate via text messages to keep radio frequencies open, but the communications difficulties that day made it impossible.
Adding to the communications issues law enforcement faced that day at the rally site, the lieutenant testified that township police were not equipped with FirstNet, a special communications network for first responders, or Signal, a private instant messaging service.
“We’ve explored (FirstNet),” the lieutenant said. “We’ve met with FirstNet people, and it just never materialized.”
Patrol officer No. 1 did have access to FirstNet, however, as part of his work with the Butler County Emergency Services Unit. Through FirstNet, he was in a texting group with other snipers from various agencies. This is how he was able to receive a picture of the shooter and pass it along to at least one other patrolman.
Although the shooter is now known to have flown a drone over the rally site hours before the shooting, all five Butler Township police personnel who were interviewed told the task force that they did not see any drones that day.
However, multiple Butler Township police personnel testified that, shortly before 6 p.m., they were made aware of a “suspicious individual” with a range finder who was lurking around the AGR building. This kick-started the dramatic series of events which led to officers encountering the shooter on the roof of the AGR building, which was captured on the detective’s body camera.
“(It’s) suspicious,” said patrolman No. 2. “I mean, it puts you on alert.”
“A range finder is suspicious,” said the lieutenant. “If it’s just a range finder, it’s not a threat in its own. However, it needs to be checked out.”
According to the Butler Township lieutenant, while the officers were aware of the urgency of the situation due to the presence of a range finder, they would not have made the decision to use lethal force yet.
“He had a range finder, so that escalated the threat level a little bit,” the lieutenant said. “It escalated a little bit, but there wasn’t really a threat until somebody was calling out that he had a gun.”
When asked what point lethal force was warranted during the incident, the detective responded, “I would say when I made contact with Mr. Crooks (the shooter) the first time would be lethal force.”
