Ronald Rowe said he’s ashamed that a roof near the rally was not better secured.
The Secret Service is making changes in the wake of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, the agency’s new acting director announced on July 30.
Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said that he traveled to the site of the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the former president was shot by a man who fired from the roof of the nearby AGR building.
“What I saw made me ashamed,” Mr. Rowe told two U.S. Senate committees on Capitol Hill. “As a career law enforcement officer, and a twenty-five-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”
He added, “To prevent similar lapses from occurring in the future, I directed our personnel to ensure every event site security plan is thoroughly vetted by multiple experienced supervisors before it is implemented.”
Mr. Rowe said he believed agents had plenty of time to plan for the rally and called what happened a “failure on multiple levels.”
In addition to former President Trump, three others were struck by bullets. One died.
Mr. Rowe assumed the director position after Kimberly Cheatle, the presidential appointee who was serving as director, stepped down a week after the former president was hit with a bullet.
Ms. Cheatle, in remarks before Congress before she resigned, said the assassination attempt represented the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure in decades.”
Lawmakers from both parties said the Secret Service should have secured the rooftop of the nearby building, or made sure other law enforcement officers secured the rooftop.
Snipers spotted Mr. Crooks 1 hour and 45 minutes before shots were fired, according to texts disclosed this week, but no officers detained the suspicious person, according to officials.
After Mr. Crooks fired the shots, he was taken out by a Secret Service sniper, officials have said.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas appointed Mr. Rowe to serve as acting director. Mr. Rowe has been part of the Secret Service for 24 years. He was previously the agency’s deputy director.
