by Nicholas Ballasy
The bipartisan House task force on the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump released its interim report Monday morning, finding “an unclear chains of command” in the security at site of the incident, a July 13 campaign rally.
The rally, in Butler, Pennsylvania, was for Trump’s GOP presidential bid. The gunman, Thomas Cooks, fired 10 shot from a rooftop in the American Glass Research complex, a series of buildings about 150 yards from the rally stage and outside to the hard security perimeter.
Two people were fatally shot in the incident, a rally-goer and Cooks. Trump was among three people wounded. A bullet grazed his right ear.
“Critical pieces of information about Crooks and the escalating threat situation at the complex moved slowly due to fragmented lines of communication and unclear chains of command on July 13,” read the report.
“Despite proximity to a main road, clear sight lines to the stage, and its elevated overlook, the Secret Service placed the AGR complex outside the secure perimeter for the event, and the AGR complex was not otherwise secured,” the report also found.
Investigators also wrote that in the report that “local sniper teams inside the AGR complex had a narrow field of vision and were not positioned to monitor the AGR property.”
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Nicholas Ballasy is a reporter for Just the News.
