I’m assistant team leader for the sniper team.
I was currently working for Butler Township at that point in time.
I did a walk-through with – I did three walk-throughs, technically, two
with our sniper team and one with – it was our team and Secret Service. It was the whole – that would have been the July 11th walk-through.
And the best way that I can describe it was a gaggle of people.
12 Q: At that point in time, as best you can recall, did anyone mention security
13 concerns about the AGR building at the July walk-through?
14 A: I did.
Traffic control is not a hard thing. You stop traffic when you need to stop and let it go when it needs to go.
I was stationed at Brady Paul Lane and Meridian Road, and I was to ensure that the motorcade made it into the venue safely.
I had a Secret Service agent posted with me. He was from Arizona. Skinny and taller. He was prior Air Force.
I was sleeping. I worked the night before, so I got off 8 o’clock that morning.
And that’s why I didn’t attend the 09 brief for the ESU team. I left work at 08 and I went home, slept, came back out at 1400.
I was listening to all three of those [radio] channels.
I was – the entire time I was there I was listening to all three. Our radios
have the – we have a primary channel, but then we also have ability to scan the channels.
So I had my radio scanning those three channels.
Q: Is it possible to communicate with Secret Service on that radio?
A: Not to my knowledge.
For me to reach out, no. But at the same time I had an agent with me, so he was able to reach out to them.
I was involved in that sniper text group.
Then at 1738, I got a text message from one of the snipers of Crooks, saying, hey, this guy’s acting suspicious. He was seen with a rangefinder.
[_] said, hey, forward that to command. So they put it out over the radio.
So, okay, so 1738, got that text message.
Roughly 5 minutes-ish, Patrolman [_], who I work with, stopped at my location.
I let him know about the picture. I showed him the picture.
At the same – within that 5 minutes, I also showed that to the Secret Service agent.
well, did you ever see him talking
into his wrist, talking into his finger or anything like that? And that answer was yes.
And that was after I showed the picture to him.
I said, hey,
can you go help whatever guys over there look for – because at that point in time I had not been over to the AGR. I was under the understanding – I had no idea there was a crowd over there. I thought it was – that whole area was blocked off.
So I asked Patrolman [_] hey, if anything happens, do you want me to maintain this spot at Brady Paul? It was absolutely yes. So I asked Patrolman to go over there, help look.
Sergeant [_] came. I showed him the same picture.
I called Sergeant [_], let him know, asked him to go help, because he was
stationed at Meridian and Whitestown Road, which is just adjacent to the AGR building.
Then I started hearing updates over the radio of, hey, he was last seen here; hey,
he was last seen there. So I was relaying that information because that was coming over ops 4. Butler Township guys weren’t scanning ops 4, so I was relaying that information to Butler Township guys.
And then a few minutes before shots were fired, I told the Secret – I asked the
Secret Service agent I was with, I said, hey, is it all right if I go help my guys look? So I drove over there. And as I’m getting out and starting to go that way, that’s when the shots happened.
Q: You mentioned connectivity issues. Do you have FirstNet?
A: Yes. So I was – the FirstNet people I was able to communicate with.
Q: Were you monitoring the Signal?
A: Yes
Q: And did you send or receive any messages?
A: I got the picture of Crooks. That was after I had already gotten that picture, though.
So the Signal group is our entire team, including the medical units.
So it encompasses everybody. So when we have to put something out for the entire team, that’s what we use, because it’s easier just – it’s easier to get the entire team on that.
But when you have – so we have our sniper group.
So when it’s that smaller group, that’s when we typically just text each other.
Q: What was your involvement with the sniper team for Butler ESU on July 13th?
A: So on July 13th, it was very minimal. It was more or less me monitoring the
radio and relaying what information that I could for Butler Township guys. My
involvement was the preplanning of it for the ESU portion of it.
So like we shut down – like, the night before I posted no parking signs all
along Meridian Road, put up a few barricades. And I requested we
get – that we get barricades for the parking lot. And his response was, hey, that’s a private company. That’s not our responsibility.
We look from the – from inside the venue, you can’t
see – you can only see the very top of the water tower.
And it covered – because the water tower was blocked because of the foliage on
the trees. Couldn’t – we stood where the stage was. I even moved back where the crowd would have been standing, still couldn’t see most of the water tower.
No, because – so when I – so I got hold of the owner of the AGR building for
us to go look at it and everything. And even during when we went to go look around, he’s like, we were waiting for a phone call from somebody. You guys are the first one to call us. So at that point in time, I know the Secret Service didn’t call him.
What I’m being told is we’re going to be putting a fence
around the area, an opaque fence that would block the view from people looking through the fence on the ground level.
Q: At 1751 hours, when Officer stopped at your location – and how did
he arrive at your location? Did he arrive in a vehicle?
A: Yes
Q: At 1758 hours, according to the supplemental narrative on page 13 of the
incident report from Butler Township Police Department, you called Sergeant [_].
Was the Secret Service agent present for that phone call in your area, by your post?
A: Yes
Q: At 1806 hours, you left your post to assist in looking for Crooks.
A: Yes.
Q: So, in the time that you’d received the text message of Thomas Crooks from ESU members at about 1738 to 1806 hours when you left your post, you’re aware that the Secret Service agent that was at your post had observed at least a phone call between you and [_ ] a meeting between you and [_ ] in his car, a call with Sergeant [_ ], a meeting with Sergeant [_] at your location, and the Secret Service was also aware that you had relayed information from ESU members that Crooks was last seen between the AGR building headed towards Sheetz, correct?
A: Yes.
So I had a car as well, and by the time I pulled out and had the emergency
lights on – because there was a little bit of traffic. Most of it had dissipated, but there was still a little bit – get down, I parked. I heard over the radio, I believe it was Patrolman [_] saying something about someone on roof, on the roof.
And I don’t – I maybe – I don’t know why, because someone being on the roof
just in general is not enough to obviously warrant a deadly-force response, but I grabbed my rifle out of the car at the same time, and I began – I mean, no more than I grabbed my rifle and parked – because I parked underneath the water tower. No more had I grabbed my rifle and started going, the shots happened.
Q: When you arrived at the water tower, did you observe any other vehicles that
were stationed at the water tower?
A: No.
But whether – I think – you know what? I think someone – someone [Vensel] on
the radio said, I think he’s – the kid might be associated with AGR. I think that’s where
the clearing of the AGR building came into play.
So we cleared the AGR building, and that’s when I was asked to clear the
water tower. So we broke the lock and the chain on the gate for the water tower. And the only thing we were able to access was a little pump station below the water tower, because, like I said, the ladder was still padlocked and I believe it’s 40-foot up in the air.
We were told to stay in that position until they could get a drone up to the top of the water tower.
Q: When did your day end?3
A: I had to work that night, so 8 o’clock a.m. the next day.
I think they merged – at some point in time, they merged ops 3 and ops 4.
So, yeah, it didn’t matter what channel you were on, everyone was able to communicate the same thing.
Q: did Sergeant [_] get out of his vehicle, similar to , to speak with you?
A: No. He stayed in his car.
And then, eventually, I helped him up to the roof by expandable ladder.
After I finally figured out how to use the stupid ladder, got him up to the roof.
Q: Do you recall on ops 4 or ops 3 making a communication about possibly detaining a suspicious individual?
A: Me making? I think someone asked me if they wanted them detained, and I said yes.
Q: Do you recall when, or about, that communication about detaining a suspicious individual occurred?
A: No, but if you’re asking that question, you have the transmissions log, so I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere on there.
I think that would’ve been a very important piece of deterrence. Obviously, it’s
not going to stop something, but it would’ve been a very great piece of deterrence. I mean, we used that in Afghanistan to stop sniper fire, and it works. It blocks the view.
You can’t see out. Can’t see in either.
And at the same time, there’s stuff going over the radio, so I don’t want to tie up
the radio. Because when you talk on the radio, it’s short and concise to get your point across. So I had a lot more information that I wanted to explain to Sergeant [_] than, “Hey, go look for this guy.” He needed to know why and where to look and all that – all the more information than sitting there on the radio and tying the radio up at the same time that there’s people already talking on the radio.
I don’t know who exactly it was.
But Lieutenant [_]said, Hey, we don’t want a large amount of vehicles directly
behind the stage, directly behind Trump, so you may need to – depending on the traffic, you may need to stop traffic for, I don’t know, 5 minutes, let traffic through, stop traffic again.
Q: And I understand that Butler County and the adjoining county – sort of along
the farm is where the divider is. Is Brady Paul and Meridian still in Butler County?
A: So, yeah, technically. The line goes, like – I think it goes – it would’ve
been, like, straight through the stage. I think that’s the line between Connoquenessing and Butler Township.
But I think the – the totality of this thing, from my understanding, the State Police were.
So like when incidents happen at the Farm Show on a regular basis, because the
majority of the Farm Show’s in Connoquenessing, State Police handle all incidents in – in the Farm Show, with the exception of like crashes and stuff that occur maybe on the throughway or something of that sort.
Q: Who else within Butler Township had FirstNet, if you know?
A: I believe Detective . I think he’s the only other one that had
FirstNet. I think so. And he came – he was obviously working the detail, but he
came – he was way after the fact.
Q: So at 5:35, Lieutenant [_] tells the Butler Township police officers to
open up the roads. Does that sound about right?
And then at 5:38 is when the images of Crooks were first shared and I guess
when you first received them?
Q: Did the special agent say what local law enforcement should do if they came
across Crooks?
A: No. I don’t think he said what we should do. It was just, hey, if you guys
find him we’ll talk to him.
Q: Did the special agent say what local law enforcement should do if they came
across Crooks?
A: No. I don’t think he said what we should do. It was just, hey, if you guys
find him we’ll talk to him.
Q: All right. So at 5:45, told ops 4 that Pennsylvania State Police and the
sheriff should be en route.
Were you listening to ops 4 around that time?
A: I was. Like I said, I was listening to all four channels. So you have a
primary channel. So my – at that point in time, my primary channel would have been ops 3.
So when someone’s keying up on ops 3, that’s what I hear. It overrides the other two channels. It’s only when someone is not talking on ops 3 was I also able to hear the other two channels.
Q: So why did you take it upon yourself to send people?
A: Based off of the text messages I got earlier, hey, this – at 1738 of Crooks.
Knowing I have guys right on the corner of AGR building and at least – I know at least one of them can break free and go help look. The more eyes over there the better.
Yeah, I thought there was already people over there, but I’m listening on the radio that we can’t find him. So I’m going to – I’m going to start sending as many guys over there as I can.
It didn’t get to a point – it got – finally got to a point where, hey, we’re still
looking for him and we can’t find him 10, 15 minutes later. So now we – maybe we need some additional eyes over there of, hey, help us locate this guy.
I didn’t care about the road at that point. I knew there was this guy
that needed to be found, so let’s go – let’s go find him.
Q: At 3 minutes after 6:00, you relay that someone from ESU said that Crooks was
headed toward Sheetz. How did you get that information?
A: I heard it over the radio.
Q: And at around the same time, Officer says, “we have two officers, they have him detained, correct?”
What did you understand that to mean?
A: I don’t think that was at the same – what was – you have the actual time?
Q: I do.
Q: But do you recall saying that there are two officers, they have him detained, correct?
A: Yeah. I remember that, yeah.
Q: What did you think that meant when he said that?
