What One Secret Service Agent Was Really Doing (Googling) As Trump’s Would-Be Assassin Opened Fire

A new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general report reveals that a Secret Service counter-drone operator was actively Googling the location of the rooftop where would-be assassin Thomas Crooks was perched at the exact moment he opened fire on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Instead of quickly coordinating with officers on the scene, the operator resorted to an internet search while the gunman took aim from just 155 yards away, one of several catastrophic failures detailed in the blistering report.

Perhaps more alarming, local law enforcement had identified Crooks on the roof two minutes before the first shots rang out — yet the then-presidential candidate's protective detail was never alerted.

President Trump was the target at the Butler campaign rally where he was shot and wounded. The assassin's bullet would strike Trump's ear, leaving him bloodied. Corey Comperatore, a retired volunteer fire chief, was killed in the assassination attempt as he protected his wife and daughter, and two other men were seriously wounded.

Multiple agents were suspended without pay in connection with their response to the attempted assassination.

Secret Service member was Googling rooftop location of Trump's would-be assassin when shots rang out in Butler, Pa.: DHS report https://t.co/MWOfG7irE4 pic.twitter.com/jHwUZwvtdv
— New York Post (@nypost) July 3, 2026

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The new DHS IG report, released on Thursday, shows the counter-drone operator was still Googling the location of the American Glass Research (AGR) building when Crooks opened fire.

You know, as opposed to asking someone about his location or where he had been spotted.

Local law enforcement at 6:09 p.m. called Secret Service and the Pennsylvania State Police communications room, “warning them of a suspicious person on the AGR complex’s roof."

“Instead of asking local law enforcement personnel for the AGR complex’s location, the counter drone operator searched online for it, and was still searching when Crooks fired his first shots,” the report states.

As a result, the president’s team remained completely unaware of the armed gunman just 155 yards away until bullets were already flying.

Secret Service knew Thomas Crooks was on roof TWO MINUTES before he shot at Trump, bombshell intelligence report reveals https://t.co/DCf1dBk1Vs
— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) July 2, 2026

Just two minutes later, at 6:11 p.m., Crooks opened fire with eight shots. Despite that narrow window, the president’s own protective detail was never warned that an armed gunman had a clear line of sight to the stage.

Furthermore, a Secret Service site agent proposed using trucks already on location at the Butler Farm Show grounds to block the line of sight from the AGR building to the stage, but campaign staff rejected the idea because the vehicles would be “too close to [President Trump’s] press shot.”

However, the agreed-upon alternative placement was never implemented, and supervisors failed to follow up after being told that local law enforcement would handle the AGR complex. That miscommunication left Crooks with an unobstructed 155-yard view of the podium.

The IG report also highlighted that the lead agent at the event, Miyo Perez, was relatively inexperienced, while the two supervisors overseeing her planning faced no discipline and later received promotions from Sean Curran, the agent ultimately responsible for signing off on the Butler site security plan. Curran is presently the Director of the United States Secret Service.

Law enforcement was eventually able to neutralize Crooks, shooting and killing him on the rooftop after he opened fire.

"The Secret Service’s overall lack of policy and processes, coupled with limited intelligence sharing and poor collaboration and communication with protectee staff and state and local law enforcement, set the conditions that led to missing opportunities to prevent and detect the attempted assassination," the report reveals.

It was a cascade of inexcusable failures. A man died in this attack, two others were severely wounded, the future President was almost killed, and the nation would have almost surely been plunged into absolute chaos.

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