‘It Was A Matter Of Seconds’: PA State Police Official Details Identifying The Trump Rally Shooter

2 months ago

On Tuesday, Rep. Robert Menendez Jr. (D-NJ) questioned Pennsylvania State Law Enforcement officials on the investigation into the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Chairman, thank you to our witnesses for appearing here today. I just want to join my colleagues in

00:04remembering our colleague Sheila Jackson-Lee. She was incredible at this job. She was brilliant.

00:11She was tenacious. She was tough, but she cared about her district, cared about this country,

00:18and perhaps my favorite thing was her taking the five-minute clock as a recommendation as

00:23opposed to a hard-set time. But to the matter today, I just want to ask Colonel Peirce,

00:32how many times have you worked with the Secret Service on events like this in Pennsylvania?

00:38So year-to-date, we're in the low 20s.

00:41So low 20s just this year?

00:43Yes, in an average year, it's about the same number, but given the election year, there's more.

00:49And I'm sorry for not knowing this, but in your entire career,

00:52that would make it roughly how many times?

00:56Dozens, I would say.

00:57Okay. And do you find that there's, for each event, despite whether it's in Philadelphia

01:01or Butler, a standard process and set of procedures that are followed every single time?

01:09In terms of the planning of it?

01:10The consistency of the planning of the event.

01:12Yes, I would say there is a consistency of the planning based on my experience, yes.

01:15Not much variation. There is a set plan that the Secret Service administers with its state,

01:21county, and local partners.

01:23That's been my experience, yes, sir.

01:25Was there any change or deviation?

01:27Not to my knowledge.

01:31I've benefited from so many of my colleagues on this committee who

01:35served in law enforcement, served in our military. I want to ask you a question.

01:40From the time that a law enforcement officer was hoisted up,

01:44was identified by the shooter, shooter turns his rifle on him,

01:49how long between that encounter and the first shot?

01:53So I'm glad you asked me that question, Congressman. I'd like to clarify. So

01:57it was a matter of seconds.

01:58Okay. Because I think earlier it might have been minutes.

02:01And I appreciate you asking that question. Allow me to clarify it on the record.

02:04When I assigned that number, which again, I don't want to get locked into a timeline

02:09of three minutes before, that's probably a total number of time, amount of time that he was on the

02:16roof. When the one local officer hoisted the other one up and subsequently falls, releases himself

02:24after being faced with that.

02:26Shooter shuffles across the roof.

02:28He's already, I believe, close to being in his final position there. And I'm told it's, again,

02:33sequence of events, not a timeline based on the prior criteria laid out. But seconds after that

02:38is when the first shots rang out.

02:40That's helpful. And the chairman and I were conferring on that because

02:43it would have been, there's many failures on that day, but it would have been a critical failure

02:47if a gunman had turned his rifle on law enforcement and no one had pulled the

02:52president off the stage if it was a matter of minutes, but seconds.

02:56Thank you for allowing me to clarify.

02:57No, of course. Of course. And thank you for answering the question. Just going back

03:02to the general process that you've seen over your distinguished career,

03:06were there any specific challenges that you and your team faced during this event?

03:12None of which I'm aware. To my knowledge, the planning on the PSP side,

03:16as per our interface with the Secret Service, was routine.

03:19Okay. And you mentioned earlier that there's, that in your experience and the standard protocol,

03:29a Secret Service comes, engages with its state, county and local partners. They have a plan.

03:34They work with their partners to implement the plan and lead up to the event, the day of the

03:38event. Is there an opportunity for the state, county and local partners to provide input,

03:44you know, given that they have more familiarity with the area, Butler Police, you yourself have

03:51more familiarity with the area. Is there an opportunity for you to provide any feedback

03:56to the plan that the Secret Service comes to you with?

03:58In my past experience, yes. And in my past experience, I found the Secret Service very

04:04open and collaborative. We enjoy a very strong working relationship with them.

04:08And again, there's that fine line where the deference is that they're the

04:12top com under a unified command. It's their incident. But certainly, we would endeavor

04:17to give them any local nuance that would make the planning more successful and more safe.

04:22I appreciate that. One of the things we touched on multiple times today is the multiple lines

04:29of communication, three different signals that were being used, a command center.

04:35In your experience working with the Secret Service, have you seen a better implementation

04:41of a more streamlined communication setup that allows the different actors, the local PD,

04:48the county PD, the state police, to directly communicate to the command center? And then

04:54once there, there's a clear chain of command?

04:57I have not. The Secret Service comms is a very complex operation because of the worldwide

05:04environment in which they work. I'm in no way an expert in it. I think from the state and local

05:09perspective, our job is to try and integrate communications. And it doesn't have to be a super

05:14high tech solution. We have people who can get a message, turn over their shoulder and

05:21report verbally. We have radios that we can exchange. Or we have a trooper with a radio

05:26assigned to another partner, be that a federal partner or a municipal partner. And those two

05:32radio communication systems can interface because of the human interaction. And I'll wrap up real

05:37quickly, Mr. Chair. And it sort of makes sense in a way because you're going to have people doing

05:42traffic. Folks who you mentioned, a child went missing. You could have a firecracker. You could

05:49have a multiple number of things that don't need to rise up, which is why some level of siloing

05:53makes sense. But we need to look at how we make it a clearer chain of communication to ensure that

06:00really important pieces of information, like identifying the shooter on the roof, doesn't

06:05get delayed in moving through those channels. So thank you both for appearing here. Thank you both

06:08for your service. And thank you, Chair. I yield back. The gentleman yields. I now recognize the

06:13Chair.

‘It Was A Matter Of Seconds’: PA State Police Official Details Identifying The Trump Rally Shooter

Category

Transcript

Recommended