The Secret Service may have been able to stop the gunman who shot at former President Donald Trump on July 13 had its counter-drone technology worked as intended.
Ronald Rowe, the Secret Service’s acting director, told Congress Tuesday that cellular communication issues delayed the Secret Service from launching counter-drone technology it planned to use to help secure the Butler, Pennsylvania rally site.
The question of whether the Secret Service could have stopped the shooter — who launched his own drone to survey the site roughly two hours before the rally — if its technology had worked as intended “has cost me a lot of sleep,” he said.
“We could have perhaps found him,” Mr. Rowe said. “We could have perhaps stopped him.”
Mr. Rowe was responding to a question from Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, who said he received documents from local law enforcement showing the Secret Service had planned to have someone operate a counter unmanned aerial system (UAS), as drones are called, on July 13.
“According to the Secret Service, the drone system was supposed to be operational at 3 p.m.,” Mr. Grassley said. “That day, however, we’ve been told by Secret Service that because of the cellular bandwidth problems, it wasn’t operational until about 5:20.”
Mr. Grassley asked why the Secret Service’s technology is dependent on cellular networks, and why there was no backup plan in place.
Mr. Rowe was reluctant to explain the technology in detail in a public hearing so as not to provide tactical information to potential bad actors. But he admitted the failure to have a counter-drone in the air is something he has struggled to understand.
“On this day the counter UAS system had operational difficulties and did not go operational until after 5 o’clock,” Mr. Rowe said.
The shooter flew his drone at 3:51 p.m. Had the Secret Service counter drone been operational at that point, it should have recognized the shooter’s drone and the agency would have been able to respond.
“Moving forward, we are leveraging resources from the Department of Homeland Security and others to make sure that we have dedicated connectivity so that we’re not reliant on public domain — so that we can ensure that whatever assets we have in place, those assets are operational,” Mr. Rowe said.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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