Trump shooting: Cops warned of gunman, Secret Service didn't find out in time

The US Secret Service's acting chief revealed that a major communication failure between local authorities and Secret Service agents contributed to the security failure during the attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania last month.

Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr admitted that local police in Pennsylvania had warned about a man with a gun on a roof before the shooting, but the message did not reach Secret Service agents on time due to different communication channels being used by them, leading to a critical delay in relaying the warning.

"This was a failure," Rowe said at a press conference in Washington, as quoted by NBC News. He stated that the Secret Service takes "full responsibility" for the events leading up to the assassination bid.

He explained that roughly 30 seconds before shots were fired, a local police officer radioed that he spotted a man with a gun, but that information never made it to the Secret Service because the agents were stationed in a different command post from their local partners and did not have access to the same radio traffic.

"It is plainly obvious to me that we didn't have access to certain information," Rowe said. "Not by anybody's fault. It just so happened that there was a sense of urgency [on the radio, and] that there might have been radio traffic that we missed. We have to do a better job of that."

Rowe called for improving communication and coordination between different agencies, noting that the final 30 seconds before the shooting saw crucial radio transmissions that Secret Service agents did not receive.

Despite a Butler County countersniper texting photos of the suspicious man to a Secret Service counterpart 15 minutes before Trump took the stage, the agency’s snipers were unaware of the threat until they were informed a full eight minutes later, he said.

The FBI is currently leading a criminal investigation into the shooting, and Rowe stated that investigators believe "there was somebody who did in fact radio out that they had seen the individual with a weapon."

He also acknowledged that agents should have had better cover of the vantage points from which the 20-year-old gunman fired shots at Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.

The incident has sparked intense scrutiny of the Secret Service, with initial criticism centered on the failure to secure the building the gunman used. The agency initially blamed local law enforcement but later conceded it was ultimately the agency's responsibility to ensure the building was covered.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned last month in the wake of the attack and after a contentious House hearing about the attempt.

Investigators are still working to determine the motive of the would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks, 20, who opened fire minutes into Trump's speech, injuring the former president's ear, killing one person in the crowd, and injuring two others.

(With Reuters inputs)