First half:
ATSAIC-PIT
Q: During the day, did you hear reports about drone issues in the security room with Secret Service?
A: During the day, no.
Q: When did you learn about those issues?
A: I found out after –
Q: Okay.
A: – after the 13th that the – the drone detection equipment was malfunctioning.
Q: How did you find that out?
A: Word of mouth. You know, through discussions with SAIC SAIC .
Q: Do you recall any discussion of drone mitigation for the July 13th event at the police briefing on July 8th?
A: No.
beaver-esu-medic
Q: Did anyone in that brief that happened at 9:00 a.m. instruct your team to be on the lookout for drones?
A: Yes. I do remember that.
Q: Did you or your team see any drones on 13 July?
A: I personally did not and, no, I don’t think that anybody that I was with saw them, but I may be speaking out of turn for them.
beaver-esu-snip.-atl
Q: Did you ever see a drone that day?
A: No.
Q: What would you have thought if, at any point, you’re seeing a drone flying around on your side of the Secret Service perimeter?
A: So, actually, in the briefing, one of the things that was brought up was drone surveillance; that if any were spotted, they would be reported and that somebody had capabilities of intercepting the drones.
So, yeah. I mean, throughout the day, through the observations, it was part of the thing to look around for, but I didn’t see any drones that day.
beaver-esu-snip.-tl
Q: Was there any discussion of any sort of aerial surveillance or anything of that nature, sir?
A: Yes. So one thing they asked us to keep an eye on was for drone activity. And if we had seen a drone, we were supposed to call out the location per the map, the approximate size and height of the drone, and that was going to be relayed to the Department of Homeland Security that had some drone – drone team that were going to disable it. I don’t know who they were. I had no contact them, but that’s what was brought up in the briefing.
Q: A couple quick hitters then. Let’s talk drones. Did you ever see a drone that day?
A: I did not.
btpd-detective
Q: For detail encounters, did you have any discussions before you arrived at the event on July 13th about encountering a suspicious – suspicious activity or suspicious1 behavior?
A: I do remember the drones. I remember if a drone was spotted to report that. That’s the only suspicious activity that, you know, we spoke about.
Q: And did you view any drones at the July 13th event that day?
A: I did not see any drones. I could not see the event, or really anything from my location, just because I was so far away from it.
btpd-lt.-1
Q: So in the detail encounters, it mentions that – for drones, report drone sightings to command post with approximate position and description?
A: Yep.
Q: Were your officers known – did they know to be on the lookout for drones?
A: Yes.
Q: Did they report seeing any?
A: No. Each one of my men got a copy of this, and they were briefed on this detail.
Q: And none of them reported seeing drones around 4?
A: No. And, even after action, nobody saw a drone.
btpd-patrol-1
Q: Had you sighted any drones during your time at the event?
A: No.
Q: Were you aware of any drone sightings that had been made –
A: No.
btpd-patrol-2
Q: Did the Secret Service or anyone else from law enforcement advise you to watch for drones?
A: Yes.
Q: Who?
A: Lieutenant during our briefing.
Q: Did you see any drones flying during the day of the rally, sir?
A: I did not.
Well, I believe a drone went up in the evening. I think they put their own – someone in the law enforcement sent a drone up, but that was after the rally was – during the investigation.
Q: But prior to shots being fired, you saw no drone?
A: Correct.
btpd-patrol-3
Q: At any point during the day did you see any drones flying?
Do you recall that?
A: No. We are told in the briefing – I do remember this – that if you see a drone, call him.
Q: Now that that just triggered your memory, anything else about the briefing about particularly suspicious activity to keep an eye out for?
A: If you see a drone, call it in.
Q: And where would you have called it in?
A: I would have called that in to the CP on OPS 3.
Q: Okay. So you would have switched off of the channel that you were regularly –
A: Yes.
butler-des-dir
Q: How many people were in the Secret Service command post room on the day of the event?
A: …
One was a drone, an anti-drone guy, and one was the radio communications guy.
…
Q: So nobody during the course of the day said, “I’m having trouble getting through to you or others”?
A: No. The only person I knew that was having trouble with the cellular traffic was the drone/ anti-drone guy because he verbalized that and actually moved his equipment outside to see if it would work better.
Q: And that’s the anti-drone person from the Secret Service?
A: From the Secret Service, correct.
Q: When you were in the Secret Service security room – we were discussing the Secret Service personnel that were responsible for drones were encountering some trouble. He had to go outside the building.
He was experiencing connectivity issues?
A: Yes.
Q: Quickly on the drone guy. To your – again, you’re watching them, you’re there – did he ever detect any drones?
Did he ever notice anything?
A: He was outside. So once he moved outside, I didn’t see him again.
Q: On the EMS 911 side of things, were there any calls in to 911 regarding a suspicious person or a drone flying?
A: Not to my knowledge.
butler-des-tech
Q: So just to clarify for the record, sir, for this particular July 13, 2024 rally, the only technology that you’re aware that the Secret Service was deploying was a drone-killing technology?
A: Yeah. Where they could shut down a drone.
The only thing that Director had said, at one time the Secret Service guy himself was having trouble making connection to the internet to use his software for the drones.
Q: Did the Secret Service or anyone else from law enforcement tell you to watch for drones?
A: The only thing that was brought up with the drones was at the Butler ESU briefing, that they said if they did knock one of the drones down, that they were requesting if one of our QRF guys could maybe go out and retrieve the drone. That was the only thing that was brought up about a drone. If they dropped one, for them to go out and try and retrieve it.
Q: Did you ever see any drones flying during the day of the rally?
A: We were in the Command Post the entire day.
The only time that we left was we left to get lunch. We walked down to the Brady Paul. I left. Got it. Brought it back.
Q: Did the Secret Service ever make it known to you, sir, that their unmanned aerial system or detection system was delayed in being operational?
A: No.
Q: Were you ever asked at any point by anyone to arrange for drone coverage at any point prior to July 13?
A: The county, no.
Q: By anyone?
A: No.
The county has a drone. We did not have it that day.
The drone never came up until the picture of the individual
The immediate one was – the information was disseminated to everybody that we could get it out to. Sheriffs, state police, both frequencies. That local Butler Township Police, ESU tactical group. Then the drone itself, I don’t know whether there was – they thought that the state – that the Secret Service had a drone, but I don’t believe – in that initial conversation, the only time that I recall a drone coming up was after the fact they needed something to clear the water tower before they sent anybody out, and that’s when the conversation of getting a drone – of us getting a drone.
I would say probably an hour after the fact. And that was just to clear the water tower before they – because they didn’t have everything entirely cleared. When they found the backpack and stuff, they wanted to clear the water tower, and that’s when that was brought up.
butler-esu-cat-tl-1
Q: Did you see any drones flying on 13 July?8
A: No, I did not.
butler-esu-cat-tl-2
Q: Okay. Do you recall viewing any drones, hearing any drones that day?
A: No, sir.
Q: Did you receive any instructions on identification of any drones at the campaign rally site?
A: No, I didn’t.
butler-esu-dep.-comm.-1
Q: Sir, was there any discussion amongst Butler ESU about any sort of aerial sort of review of the area?
A: My recollection was either the day or so before we were asked if we could also provide services – if Secret Service were to have a counter drone element in place and disabled drones, if we would be able to go out and retrieve them.
Q: Do you see where it says that members are to report all sightings of drones to CP?
A: Yes.
Q: Is CP command post?
A: Yes.
Q: You were inside the command post, right?
A: Yes.
Q: Do you recall any reports of sightings of drones?
A: Late in the evening after the shooting, there were drones, but prior to that, no.
butler-esu-dep.-comm.-2
Q. At any point on July 13th, did you see any drones?
A: I did not.
And then they were also tasked to, by the Secret Service, if any aerial drones were in or about the perimeter, non-friendly drones, that they would be killed. That’s the terminology they used. When they drop out of the sky, the QRF would be responsible to respond to that location and recover them. That was it for that day.
butler-esu-op.-2
And then we were also told we should report any sightings of drones to the command post, and then QRF may be tasked with retrieval of the drone if it was knocked out of the sky, I guess, by a Dronebuster.
I believe that the entire deployment team was just made aware of, hey, if you see a drone, call it out and give a sector.
Q: Okay. So, the idea was you are in the barn, and you’re listening, waiting for anyone to say, we need QRF at this location to respond to a drone or a potential suspect or anything like that?
A: Correct.
Q: And you didn’t see a drone at all or notice one flying around the 3:50 p.m. time frame?
A: No.
Q: Okay. And did anyone else on the QRF or the CAT team nearby that you overheard a conversation about mention anything about drones?
A: Not during or after has anyone reported any sighting.
butler-esu-op.-atl
Q: Right. And also to retrieve any drones –
A: Yes.
Q: – that anybody – that any law enforcement saw?
A: Yes.
In my career, that was the first time I was ever told that I was in charge of recovering drones.
We were told, you know, if a drone was down, we were to recover a drone, or the drone.
Q: Okay. And on the day of the 13th, did you see any drones?
A: I don’t recall.
Butler-ESU-Snip-TL
Q: At any point in the day did you see drones flying around the event?
A: No. And that surprised me when I heard reports that after the fact that he had flown one. And I was, like, I never heard it, never seen it.
But they had the music so loud that – normally you hear a drone. It can make that buzzing noise.
But the music was so loud that I couldn’t hear anything but the music a lot of times so…
butler-esu-sniper
Q: Moving ahead in the day – first of all, did you ever see any drones that day?
A: I don’t recall seeing any drones flying around.
That was literally something I just stumbled across in a WRSWAT search! How crazy that it fits what you’ve been working on!
