Beaver County SWAT team points to communication issues ahead of Trump assassination attempt
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Shocking allegations from the local SWAT team tasked with securing the rally for former President Donald Trump earlier this month in Butler County.
Members of the Beaver County SWAT team spoke with ABC News and claimed there was a lack of protocol and training for the July 13 rally in Butler Township. The team also said that its clear attempts to alert the United States Secret Service of something suspicious were never acted upon.
Communication breakdown explained
KDKA-TV visited the rally site four days before the assassination attempt and saw U.S. government vehicles with government-issued plates carrying a full pre-inspection team to the would-be rally site, clearly doing a security sweep. At the time, KDKA-TV asked them who they were with, but they declined to comment.
Now, new media reports claim that part of this pre-visit was supposed to include a Secret Service extensive security ops training with local law enforcement tasked with keeping former President Donald Trump safe and secure.
"We were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the Secret Service snipers whenever they arrived, and that never happened," Jason Woods, a Beaver County SWAT lead sharpshooter, told ABC News.
The Beaver County SWAT team told ABC News that though some security team was on-site days earlier, that team never met with them, as is protocol.
The SWAT members also said their team spotted would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks as much as an hour beforehand and that local law enforcement thought Crooks looked suspicious and even witnessed him holding a range finder.
They took pictures and texted them to local snipers on the team and then called "command" to express concern. Command acknowledged receiving the concern, but local law enforcement said they never heard anything back.
Sergeant Gregory Nicol of the Monaca Police Department also spoke during the ABC News interview, saying, "We had a text group between the local snipers that were on scene. I sent those pictures out to that group and advised them of what I noticed and what I had seen."
These SWAT team members said these two key events are what ultimately led to the assassination attempt. Two other men were critically injured and one man died.