‘We Lost Sight of Him’: Unreleased Police Radio Transmissions About Donald Trump’s Assassination Attempt Expose More Failures

Unreleased police radio transmissions regarding the sighting of the would-be Donald Trump assassin exposed more failures from the Secret Service, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

Criticism of the agency continued to mount in the wake of the assassination attempt by Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who walked into the Trump rally with a rangefinder and was spotted lurking outside the secured perimeter about an hour before shots rang out.

Despite the 20-year-old – who was killed by law enforcement counter snipers – being flagged as a suspicious person upon entering the rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, he managed to scale a nearby building and fire an AR-15 style rifle, narrowly missing the ex-president and killing one attendee.

Now, unreleased police radio transmission revealed the security agents "lost sight of him" shortly before the shooting began.

Around 5:42 PM on July 13, the day of the rally, a local counter sniper attempted to relay an important message to secret service agents inside a mobile communications hub over police radio.

According to a time-stamped transcript of the radio communication, the counter sniper said: "Just an FYI, we had a younger white male, long hair, lurking around the AGR building. He was viewed with a range finder sighting the stage. … We lost sight of him."

Unfortunately, no member of the secret service was inside the mobile communications hub to receive the message. Instead, secret service agents were some 300-yards away at a separate mobile command post with Pennsylvania State Police.

There was additionally no open line of communication between the two trailers. Two officials revealed a local commander inside the hub that received the counter sniper's startling message had to use his cell phone to call a state trooper and inform them of the critical message.

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For the next 29 minutes, local police searched for Crooks, a critical lapse of time directly impacted by the lack of open communication with the secret service, according to the Washington Post.

Twenty minutes had passed after Crooks was initially flagged for carrying a rangefinder, which is commonly used in long-range shooting. When he was seen again, walking in the area of the "AGR building" an officer fumbled his location, leading police to search on the wrong side of the building.

Crooks was then able to climb onto the building's rooftop. At 6:11 PM, he opened fire as Trump was on stage speaking to the crowd.

Due to the jumbled communication line, secret service agents positioned closest to the Republican nominee were completely caught off-guard by Crooks' gunfire.

It was found that on three different occasions, the mobile command post officer had to use his personal cell phone to relay information to the secret service. In one instance, local police spotted Crooks on the top of the building with a gun.

Radio communication transcripts showed the message was relayed 30 seconds before the would-be assassin opened fire – and the secret service admitted they never received the message.

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