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Whistleblower reveals why Trump rally officer assigned to shooter’s perch moved

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Whistleblower reveals why Trump rally officer assigned to shooter’s perch moved

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Whistleblowers have told Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley that a law enforcement officer who was assigned to monitor the roof of a building that would-be former President Trump assassin Thomas Crooks fired from on July 13 left their post because it was “too hot.”

Crooks, 20, fired multiple rounds from the roof of American Glass Research (AGR) Building 6, which was outside the rally perimeter but had a direct line of sight to where the former president was standing on stage at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

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“This comes from a whistleblower with direct knowledge of the Secret Service plan and setup that day,” Hawley said. “And what this whistleblower tells my office is that there was at least one law enforcement person assigned to the roof itself. In other words, the plan called for a law enforcement individual to be on the roof at all times during the rally. And that did not happen. And what the whistleblower tells me is the law enforcement individual who was assigned to that roof abandoned it.”

Butler’s temperature reached a high of 92 degrees on July 13, and prior to the assassination attempt, emergency personnel at the rally were mostly focused on attending to people suffering from heat-related illnesses.

TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AFTER SECRET SERVICE FAILURES PROMPTS CALLS FOR DRASTIC AGENT RECRUITMENT CHANGES

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., says a whistleblower told him law enforcement personnel were assigned to cover the roof of the building Thomas Crooks fired from at a former President Trump rally on July 13, but they left because it was “too hot” that day. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Hawley, who visited the rally site on Friday, noted that the AGR building in question was about 150 yards or fewer from the main stage of Trump’s rally.

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TRUMP SHOOTING: TIMELINE OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

While Congress has confirmed that Crooks purchased a ladder at Home Depot prior to the rally shooting that left 50-year-old firefighter and father Corey Comperatore dead and two others — 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaver — critically wounded, he could have accessed the roof of the AGR building without a ladder. Lawmakers who visited the site on Monday were able to reach the roof without a ladder.

“…He or she was too hot and just thought it was unnecessary to be out there.”

— Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.

The same whistleblower told Hawley that multiple law enforcement personnel were also assigned to patrol the perimeter of the building “to make sure that somebody couldn’t just jump up” onto the roof, possibly from one of the air-conditioning units jutting out from the windows of the building, the senator said.

The Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, site of a campaign rally for former President Trump, is seen on July 15. Trump was wounded on July 13 during an assassination attempt while speaking at the rally. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

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The roofs at the Butler Fair Ground in Pennsylvania, where a group of bipartisan lawmakers visited on Monday. (Fox News Digital)

“All of these whistleblowers who’ve now come forward to my office, saying things like: law enforcement was assigned to be on the roof, and they weren’t. They were assigned to be patrolling the perimeter of that building, and they weren’t. They were supposed to be communicating over a common radio frequency, and they weren’t,” Hawley said. “I have to say, none of that surprises me because it is just astounding with those kind of failures and errors that this 20-year-old was able to get up on in plain view of everybody onto that low-slung roof and take multiple shots at the [former] president.”

AIR FORCE VETERAN AT TRUMP RALLY SAYS ‘SOMETHING WASN’T RIGHT’ BEFORE WOULD-BE ASSASSIN OPENED FIRE

Approximately one hour passed between the time law enforcement officials first identified a suspicious person near the rally grounds and the time Crooks fired. Officials temporarily lost sight of the suspicious person, but then around 5:52 p.m., a sniper “had eyes on him,” which was about 20 minutes before the gunfire rang out, Hawley said, citing a briefing he attended with former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle last week.

The whistleblower also told Hawley that the Secret Service had delegated the AGR building and the roof to local or state law enforcement but noted that both local and federal officials have been pushing blame onto one another.

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PENNSYLVANIA OFFICERS NOT ALLOWED IN SECRET SERVICE COMMAND CENTER AT TRUMP RALLY, LAWMAKERS SAY ON SITE

“There’s a lot of effort on the part of both Secret Service, on the one hand, and DHS on the other hand, and then also state and local law enforcement to push the responsibility off onto each other. So this is just why we need to get these facts into the open. We need to have real and substantive hearings, not like the one [on Monday] where the former Secret Service director wouldn’t even respond to questions. What a farce that was,” Hawley said.

Thomas Crooks seen at the Trump rally on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Sen. Ron Johnson)

His comments came the same day Cheatle resigned from her position on Tuesday morning.

“To the Men and Women of the U.S. Secret Service, The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders and financial infrastructure,” Cheatle wrote in a letter to the agency obtained by Fox News. “On July 13th, we fell short on that mission.”

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TRUMP SHOOTING SITE GIVES BIRDS-EYE VIEW OF ‘DISORGANIZED’ RALLY SCENE, WITNESSES SAY

Cheatle said that the “scrutiny” over the last week “has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases.” 

WATCH: EYEWITNESS SHARES NEW FOOTAGE OF TRUMP SHOOTING

“As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she wrote.

Now, Hawley is calling for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign, as well.

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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., left, is calling for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign in light of the assassination attempt against former President Trump. (Getty Images)

“Alejandro Mayorkas needs to resign. He’s the head of DHS. All of this is in his purview — Secret Service, the DHS personnel,” the Missouri senator said. “Another whistleblower tells me that most of the federal security there that day were not Secret Service. Most of them were DHS personnel who had just been detailed over to this event for the day. And they were largely not prepared, not read into the security plan, and were not executing their duties according to what the plan called for.”

TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA TOWN MANAGER DEFENDS POLICE AMID RESPONSE ‘MISCONCEPTION’

Hawley suggested the DHS is overwhelmed under Mayorkas’ leadership of the agency. 

A DHS spokesperson said the agency “cannot comment on matters related to an ongoing investigation. We, of course, are committed to working with the appropriate and relevant investigations of what happened on Saturday, including with Congress, the Inspector General, and both internal and independent reviews.”

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The Secret Service did not respond to an inquiry from Fox News Digital regarding Hawley’s comments.

“The Department of Homeland Security is in total crisis.”

— Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.

“I think the fact that you have so many of these DHS security folks, a lot of them are designated as investigators — DHS investigators — whose jobs are actually to be out in on the ground in the continental United States, searching for illegals, looking for crime. So many of them have been sent to the southern border. So there aren’t that many of them available to begin with. And then you’re pulling people off of other responsibilities and sending them to this rally. They’re not adequately briefed. They’re not trained to do that,” Hawley said. 

Mayorkas on Sunday announced that he has tapped a bipartisan panel of law enforcement experts to conduct a 45-day independent review of the assassination attempt.

“The men and women of the U.S. Secret Service make it the greatest protective service in the world, with one of the most solemn and difficult missions in government,” the DHS secretary said. “This independent review will make the organization even better.”

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Hawley’s office continues to communicate with whistleblowers about the Trump rally shooting and what went wrong in order for Crooks to gain access to the AGR building rooftop that evening with an AR-15.

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Northeast

Murder suspect in Baltimore robbery spree was on probation, records show

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Murder suspect in Baltimore robbery spree was on probation, records show

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A Baltimore man faces first-degree murder and multiple armed robbery charges after authorities say he carried out a nine-day crime spree that left a convenience store clerk dead.

Baltimore police said 52-year-old Brian Burrows was arrested in connection with a commercial armed robbery and the fatal shooting of Khaled Saleh Mohamed Alshariki on Feb. 13.

Court records show Burrows has been charged in three separate cases stemming from incidents on Feb. 6, Feb. 13 and Feb. 15. In total, he faces 21 charges, including one count of first-degree murder, three counts each of armed robbery, first-degree assault, use of a firearm in a violent crime and handgun on person.

He also faces two counts each of robbery and second-degree assault, along with charges including reckless endangerment, theft and discharging a firearm.

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Brian Burrows faces first-degree murder charges, among numerous others, after police say a nine-day robbery spree left a convenience store clerk dead. (Baltimore City Police)

According to police, officers responded to reports of a shooting around 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 13 and found a 36-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound to the torso. The victim, later identified as Alshariki, was transported to a nearby hospital where he died.

FOX45 News in Baltimore reported it obtained charging documents in the cases, which state surveillance footage captured a suspect approaching Alshariki as he worked behind the counter, pulling out a gun, demanding money and firing a fatal shot.

Court records show investigators used facial recognition technology to identify Burrows as a possible match.

COLORADO REPEAT OFFENDER FREED FROM JAIL LESS THAN TWO WEEKS BEFORE ALLEGEDLY KILLING MOTHER OF THREE: REPORT

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A Baltimore man faces first-degree murder and 20 other charges. (Getty Images)

Two days later, another armed robbery was reported at Family Grocery and Tobacco, about a half mile north of the Broadway store.

Police said witness statements and surveillance footage helped identify Burrows, and investigators allege the video evidence also linked him to the fatal shooting.

BALTIMORE RESIDENTS REJECT NARRATIVE FROM CITY LEADERS ABOUT VIOLENT CRIME DROPPING: ‘NOT GOING LOW’

Burrows was arrested Feb. 19 after detectives executed a warrant. (iStock)

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Burrows was arrested Feb. 19 after detectives executed a warrant at a home in Linden Heights. He was taken to an intake facility and charged.

Court records also show Burrows had an outstanding probation violation warrant issued in September 2025 in a prior armed robbery case. In that case, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with 13 years suspended, and placed on supervised probation before his release.

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Burrows remains held without bond as prosecutors pursue the murder and robbery charges, while the probation violation from his prior armed robbery case remains pending.

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Boston, MA

Red Sox rotation contender strikes out four in dominant outing

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Red Sox rotation contender strikes out four in dominant outing


FORT MYERS, Fla. — Johan Oviedo’s first outing of the spring last week didn’t go great, as the right-hander walked three over 1 2/3 innings in a performance manager Alex Cora described as “erratic.”

His second outing on Monday went much better.



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Pittsburg, PA

Record number of peregrine falcons counted in Allegheny County

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Record number of peregrine falcons counted in Allegheny County



In the early 1960s, the peregrine falcon population declined so sharply that the raptors weren’t even nesting in Pennsylvania. But now, the National Aviary says a record number have been counted in Allegheny County.

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The National Aviary says six peregrine falcons were recorded in the county during the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. The nation’s longest-running citizen science project collects data on bird populations for ornithologists, the aviary says. It also plays a role in guiding conservation action, like what was needed to bring peregrine falcons back from the brink of extinction. 

Because of the use of DDT, peregrine falcons were no longer nesting in the state of Pennsylvania by the early 1960s, the aviary said. But after the harmful pesticide, which negatively affects reproduction rates in birds, was banned in 1972, conservation efforts have helped the peregrine falcon rebound. It was removed from the federal endangered species list in 1999 and Pennsylvania’s list in 2021. 

The record number of peregrine falcons in Allegheny County is thanks in part to the nest on top of Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning in Oakland. For the past two years, biologists with the Pennsylvania Game Commission have banded chicks born in the nest. Three were banded last year, and two the year before that. 

People can watch Carla and Ecco raise their family in the nest on a livestream camera run by the National Aviary. Carla laid her first egg of the breeding season on March 16 last year, so the aviary says the start of another season isn’t too far away. 

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