The acting director of the Secret Service, Ronald Rowe, acknowledged on Friday, September 20, “failures” on the part of this service responsible for protecting senior American political figures during the failed assassination of Donald Trump on July 13.
The internal investigation “found deficiencies in the advance planning and execution of the Secret Service,” Rowe said at a news conference. “While some of the members of the scouting team were very conscientious, others were negligent,” he said, suggesting possible sanctions. Some of the line-of-fire problems were noted but not reported to higher management, Rowe added.
He is taking over for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned on July 23 after admitting responsibility for the “single most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.” Rowe cited “a lack of clarity” in the Secret Service’s dealings with and expectations of local police, as well as shortcomings in the flow of information, among the lessons to be learned from the fiasco.
The former president was injured in the ear by the gunfire that also left one person dead and two others injured in the audience at his rally on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania (northeast). The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was shot dead by the Secret Service shortly after opening fire from the roof of a nearby building. Images of Donald Trump, blood streaming down his face and his fist raised, went around the world.