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Join Telegram ChannelA Pennsylvania police officer told lawmakers Thursday that a local operator's bullet ultimately stopped the gunman who tried to kill Thomas Crooks before U.S. Secret Service fatally shot him.
The testimony from Adams Township Police Department Sergeant Edward Lenz came Thursday morning during a hearing before the House Task Force on Attempts to Assassinate Trump, which was tasked with investigating the July 13 shooting of former President Donald Trump, the first of two recent assassination attempts against him.
“With the two counterattack teams, the quick reaction force, the three sniper teams and support personnel, we provided a total strength of 44 personnel, exceeding the number requested by the Secret Service,” Lenz, commander of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit (ESU), said in his opening remarks. “At no time during the planning process was the Butler County ESU asked to secure the AGR complex, or the perimeter surrounding that area. At no time during the planning process was the Butler ESU asked to deploy a sniper team to the roof of the AGR complex.”
Butler County snipers inside the AGR building could not see the shooter from the roof of the AGR complex, and that was not part of their duties that day, Lenz added.
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From left, Sergeant Edward Lenz, Commander of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, Patrolman Drew Blasko of the Butler Township Police Department, Lt. John Herold of the Pennsylvania State Police, and former U.S. Secret Service agent Patrick Sullivan, are sworn in during the first public hearing of a bipartisan congressional task force investigating the assassination attempts on Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Thursday, September 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
A member of the rapid intervention force, however, noticed several suspicious people in the area, one of whom turned out to be the shooter.
A Beaver County sniper took a photo of the suspect near the AGR building and a photo of the shooter using a rangefinder pointing toward the scene, who was later identified as Crooks.
The sniper reported the information to Pennsylvania State Police, Lenz said. The FBI previously said the sighting occurred around 5:10 p.m. on July 13, an hour and one minute before Crooks began shooting.
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Thomas Crooks seen at the Trump rally on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Senator Ron Johnson)
Shortly afterward, when it became apparent that a threat was looming on the roof of the AGR building, a Butler County ESU operator emerged from the red barn behind the stage where Trump was speaking and surveyed the area of the AGR building, Lenz said. He “quickly identified” where the gunfire was coming from, located the shooter and fired one round at Crooks from his rifle, “causing the shooter to back away and briefly disappear from view,” the Adams Township officer testified.
“He did this less than six seconds after the shots started … at a distance of about 110 yards,” Lenz said.
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A Secret Service sniper then fired the fatal shot that incapacitated Crooks on the roof of the AGR building, where he was perched with a direct line of sight to Trump.
The FBI had previously told reporters at a news conference that the Secret Service sniper fired the fatal bullet that killed Crooks about 15.5 seconds after he began shooting. The FBI also noted at the time that the local agent who shot Crooks did not hit him.
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Sergeant Edward Lenz, commander of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, testifies during the first public hearing of a bipartisan congressional task force investigating the assassination attempts on Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Thursday, September 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
“With respect to the bullet fired by the local agent, we have no forensic evidence that indicates that bullet struck our subject or our subject's rifle,” FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek said in August.
The task force heard testimony Thursday from three local Pennsylvania law enforcement officials, including Lenz, who provided security protection at the July 13 rally; the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy of shooter Thomas Crooks; and a retired Secret Service agent.
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A graphic representation of the sniper team's position relative to the potential assassin at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. (Fox News)
Witnesses have widely suggested that the lack of guidance from the Secret Service to local agencies ultimately led to the security breaches that allowed Crooks, 20, to position himself on a nearby rooftop and shoot the former president, hitting him in the ear and killing rally-goer Corey Comperatore. Two other rally-goers, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, were seriously wounded by Crooks' gunfire.
“If we knew there was a suspicious person somewhere … why would you have let President Trump speak on that podium?” asked the task force’s chairman, Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pennsylvania, in his opening remarks.
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Congressional Chairman Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., leads the first public hearing of a bipartisan congressional task force investigating the assassination attempts on Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Ranking member Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, said in his opening remarks that while the Secret Service “failed on July 13,” the agency has more responsibilities than ever since it took over full-time presidential protection in 1902.
“The Secret Service must be expected to perform its mission of protection without fail, but Congress must also ensure that the Secret Service has the resources it needs to perform that mission. It has become clear since July 13 that the Secret Service is stretched too thin,” Crow said.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said in a statement Thursday: “We thank Congress for addressing some of the most immediate needs of the U.S. Secret Service in this heightened threat environment. This short-term funding will better equip the U.S. Secret Service to strengthen security measures in the months ahead. We look forward to working with Congress on annual funding to provide the additional personnel, technology, and equipment our people need to do their jobs.”
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On the day of the rally, Crooks parked his vehicle and flew a drone between about 3:50 p.m. and 4 p.m., about 200 yards from where the former president was scheduled to speak on July 13. FBI Director Christopher Wray testified at a congressional hearing on July 17 that Crooks had been at the rally site for about 70 minutes on the morning of the assassination attempt.
Investigators located eight bullets on the roof from where Crooks fired.