State and local law enforcement who were present at the July rally at Butler, Pennsylvania — where President Trump nearly lost his life — now say that Secret Service agents shoulder the blame for poor planning and poor execution of protective measures.

The testimony marked the first hearing with the House’s special task force on the attempted Trump assassinations. The task force will also now probe the events surrounding the second attempt on Trump’s life in Florida. 

Appearing on Thursday was a number of state and local law enforcement officials from western Pennsylvania who were charged with protecting America’s 45th president. 

A sergeant with the Adams Township police department, Edward Lenz, who also serves as a commander for the Butler County emergency services department, said his colleagues in state and local law enforcement went above and beyond in their duties that day, and that they provided more assistance to the Secret Service than had originally been requested. 

Mr. Lenz, who was head of the tactical operations unit at the Butler rally on July 13, said Pennsylvania provided 44 officers and staff to aid the protective detail that was traveling with Trump, “exceeding the number requested by the Secret Service.”

“At no point during the planning process was Butler County [law enforcement] asked to secure the … complex, nor the perimeter surrounding that area,” Mr. Lenz said. He added that they were never asked nor did they ever offer to secure the roof where the shooter had been found after the attack. His department’s officers and staff were also unable to see the shooter, because they were working to support the Secret Service inside a building, where they would have been unable to have eyes on the roof. 

Not only was local law enforcement not given a portfolio that included securing the roof or the perimeter of the Butler fairgrounds, but it was a Butler County officer who was the first to fire shots at the would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and stop him briefly. The unnamed Butler officer, Mr. Lenz said, fired a round at Crooks which then forced the shooter to briefly recoil and stop firing at the former president. When Crooks came back into sight, it was a Secret Service countersniper who was able to take him out. 

A state police officer, John Herold, echoed Mr. Lenz’s assertion that it was the Secret Service who were responsible for the failures of July 13. “The Pennsylvania state police provided all resources requested by the Secret Service. The Secret Service did not ask me as the officer in charge … to post a car [or] a trooper, at the [building where the assassin was found], nor am I aware of the Secret Service making that request to any other [state police] official.”

“We were certainly prepared for the missions that they had given us,” Mr. Lenz added during questioning from members of the task force about whether the Secret Service had prepared state and local law enforcement to an adequate level before the rally. 

One member of the task force, Congressman Michael Waltz, spent some of his time questioning law enforcement officers if they had been included in all discussions with the Secret Service and the Trump campaign about the security procedures leading up to the event. Mr. Herald said he was aware that the Secret Service and the campaign were discussing some issues the night before the rally at the Butler fairgrounds, but only because he lives across the street from the rally site where he was aware that the agency and the campaign were meeting. He said he — the state police officer in charge — was not included in those discussions. 

Mr. Waltz also asked law enforcement if they had been aware that earlier this year, the FBI had uncovered an Iran-backed plot to assassinate Trump, and to recruit hitmen here in America to do the job. All officers said they were not aware of that fact. A retired Secret Service agent who testified on Thursday, Patrick Sullivan, said it would have been a “game changer” for local law enforcement to know about such context. 

The shooting at the Butler fairgrounds left one many dead and several others injured, including the former president. Trump plans to return to the same spot on October 5 to rally with his supporters less than three months earlier. 

“President Trump will honor the memory of Corey Comperatore, who heroically sacrificed his life to shield his wife and daughters from the bullets on that terrible day. President Trump will also recognize the two other Americans who were wounded by the shooter, David Dutch and James Copenhaver,” Trump’s campaign said in a statement. “He will express his deep gratitude to law enforcement and first responders, and thank the entire community for their outpouring of love and support in the wake of the attack.”

“In the first part of this investigation, it has become clear that local law enforcement played a critical role in security on July 13, and efforts by individual local law enforcement officers may have saved lives and prevented a far greater tragedy,” said the top Democrat on the task force, Congressman Jason Crow.