Image source, Getty Images
- author, Max Matza
- role, BBC News
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The would-be assassin of President Donald Trump had been marked as a “suspicious person” by the Secret Service less than an hour before the shooting began, but managed to blend into the crowd, law enforcement officials told lawmakers.
During a closed-door briefing for House and Senate members on Wednesday, law enforcement officials, including from the Secret Service, shared limited new information about security and the man who opened fire at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming said the Secret Service told him they had spotted the attacker an hour before the attack but then lost sight of him.
“He was considered a suspicious character. [he had] “I was carrying a rangefinder and a backpack. This was over an hour before the actual shooting occurred,” he told Fox News.
“So you think, you can’t lose sight of that person during that hour.”
A rangefinder is an instrument that helps measure the distance to a target object.
The briefing also revealed that the gunman visited the Butler County fairgrounds – the scene of the attack – at least once in the days before the assassination attempt, and had previously searched for symptoms of depression on his phone, an official familiar with the briefing told BBC news partner CBS News.
The attacker also used the phone to search for photos of President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. FBI Director Ray told lawmakers on a conference call that more than 200 interviews have been conducted and 14,000 images have been reviewed.
But several Republican senators criticized investigators for a lack of transparency on the call and expressed outrage that Trump was allowed to speak after the threat was confirmed.
“I am appalled to learn the Secret Service was aware of the threat before President Trump took the stage,” tweeted Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
A law enforcement official involved in the investigation told CBS that a sniper from a local tactical team deployed to assist the Secret Service took a photo of the shooter looking through a rangefinder and immediately radioed the command center.
Authorities said the 20-year-old gunman was seen again on the roof of the building 20 minutes before the attack began, according to ABC News and other U.S. media.
He was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper within 26 seconds of firing at President Trump.
Several senators on the call complained that investigators had not answered their questions and called for the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.
“The egregious security failures and lack of transparency surrounding the assassination attempt on President Trump demand an immediate change in Secret Service leadership,” Sen. Mike Lee of Utah tweeted.
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin called the briefing to lawmakers “incredibly ill-informed” and said investigators only asked four questions from lawmakers.
Other Republican leaders also called for Cheatle’s resignation. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said after the call that “the public deserves accountability and accountability” and that a change in Secret Service leadership would be “an important step in that direction.”
House members were likewise briefed by police on Wednesday about security and what led up to Saturday’s shooting.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson also called for Cheatle’s resignation and said he plans to open an investigation into the matter.
“Republicans and Democrats will work together to get to the truth quickly and ensure the American people get the answers they deserve,” he told Fox News.
FBI Director Chris Wray, who took part in the conference call, told lawmakers that the shooter’s motive had not yet been determined.
Cheatle, a 27-year veteran of the Secret Service, is scheduled to testify next week before the Republican-controlled House Oversight and Homeland Security committees.
She said local police were being relied on to provide security for the building where the gunman climbed onto the roof and aimed a rifle.
Butler County Executive Tom Knights told CBS that local police confronted the gunman on a rooftop shortly before the attack.
The officer was responding to a call about a suspicious person and was searching when he was hoisted onto a roof by another officer and saw the suspect point a rifle at himself, Knights said.
The officer let go of his hands in a “defenseless” position and fell to the ground, after which he alerted other officers to the presence of a shooter. A few minutes later, shooting began.
The attack is being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, and President Biden has said he will order the opening of an independent investigation.
