The Secret Service’s acting director told lawmakers on Tuesday that he considered it indefensible that the roof used by the gunman in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was unsecured, faulting local law enforcement for not circulating vital information to federal authorities.
Ronald Rowe testified that he recently visited the shooting site and said, “What I saw made me ashamed.”
The testimony from Rowe amounted to the most detailed catalogue to date of law enforcement failings and miscommunications, with the Secret Service boss accepting blame for his own agency’s mistakes while also criticizing local law enforcement for not sharing information that a gunman, later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, had been spotted on a roof near the rally site in the minutes before the July 13 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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