Secret Service will rethink 'unified command post' that doesn't have all parties

The acting United States Secret Service director faced reporters Friday afternoon and revealed nuggets of information that contributed to the failures at the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

Ronald Rowe took questions from reporters for the first time, nearly three weeks after the former president was shot at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Many of the new details centered on communication failures between the Secret Service and the local law enforcement officers who had spotted the shooter 71 minutes before the shooting and – 30 seconds before shots were fired – tried to relay critical information.

Rowe clarified that the Secret Service operated a security room, including a Pennsylvania State Trooper there, but that the Unified Command Post operated by local authorities had no representation from the Secret Service.

More: Investigation into Trump shooting started within minutes on the roof, but questions linger

“At this point forward, everyone should be using the radio network,” Rowe said. “We should be able to have direct communications… if they have unified command post, maybe we need to be in that room as well.”

Rowe described in detail the critical 30 seconds that passed between local law enforcement spotting Thomas Matthew Crooks on the roof with a rifle and the shooting that struck Trump's ear, killed a firefighter attending the rally with his family and critically injured two other men.

“Someone did radio out that they saw someone with a weapon, it didn’t make it over to us,” Rowe said. “Our detail and the counter snipers were operating under the assumption, and the last bit of information they received from the locals, was that they were working an issue at the three-o’clock of the former president, nothing about a weapon.”

A member of the detail then placed a telephone call to another Secret Service worker from the Pittsburgh field office to gather more information about the “issue.”

“In the midst of that conversation,” Rowe said, “the shots began firing.”

Crooks fired his first volley of three shots at 6:11 p.m. and the Secret Service detail rushed to cover Trump. Shots four through eight took place over the next several seconds.

Rowe said roughly 15 seconds after the first shot, the counter-sniper fired and killed Crooks. This week, the Butler County coroner released a one-page report that Crooks died from a single gunshot wound to the head at 6:25 p.m.

Nick Penzenstadler is a reporter on the USA TODAY investigations team. Contact him at [email protected] or @npenzenstadler, or on Signal at (720) 507-5273.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Secret Service will rethink command posts after shooting