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Secret Service agents on leave after Trump assassination attempt shows accountability, Butler leaders say
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — More than a month since the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the Secret Service has placed the head of its Pittsburgh office and multiple other agents on leave.
Sources confirm that as a result of the Secret Service’s investigation, the Pittsburgh special agent in charge, three others with the Pittsburgh field office and one agent with Trump’s detail have been placed on leave.
Thomas Crooks opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler County on July 13, killing Corey Comparatore and wounding three people, including Trump.
Butler Township manager Tom Knights says he’s not surprised by the move, saying it perhaps shows some sign of accountability.
“I’m glad that every report that’s been received has gotten the credibility necessary for the investigation,” said Knights.
“Certainly appreciate the factual account of everything that is being brought to light,” he added.
When asked if he thought there was any political pressure, Knights responded, “Oh, I’m sure there was but I still like to think that the integrity of the investigation is intact.”
Leslie Osche, the chair of the Butler County commissioners, isn’t surprised either.
“Everybody wants an answer, we all want an answer. We all want it immediate because that’s who we are as people. Everybody wants to know everything today,” Osche said.
“I have optimism that we’re taking steps to do better and that every agency at every level should be following suit,” Osche said.
A Secret Service spokesperson responded to the news in a statement, saying, “We are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure. The U.S. Secret Service holds our personnel to the highest professional standards, and any identified and substantiated violations of policy will be investigated.”
The news comes as U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley sent a letter to Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. saying that a whistleblower says Secret Service headquarters told agents working the Trump rally not to request additional manpower resources for the rally and warned any such requests would be denied. Rowe has testified to Congress, saying no resources were ever denied.
“Certainly there should be accountability but I think it starts with the leadership,” Osche said. “I think leadership at all levels should be taking accountability for this, at every level, local, state and federal.”
Osche said it’s Secret Service’s responsibility to protect “the high-risk official.”
“For planning for the event, the buck stops with the Secret Service,” Osche said.
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Workers removing tree branches near a historic cathedral in Chelm, Poland, unearthed something unexpected when they came upon two children’s skeletons in a shallow burial pit where no gravesites are marked, the government’s Culture Ministry said.
Neither skeleton was buried in a coffin and one of the children was buried with the characteristics of an anti-vampire burial, Dr. Stanisława Gołuba, the archaeologist leading the research, said in a Facebook post. The child’s head was separated from its body, the post said, and the skull was facing down into the ground arranged on a stone. This, plus the way the skeletons were oriented, appears to be consistent with ancient burial methods used to prevent a person thought to be a demonic entity from exiting the grave, Gołuba said.
The skeletons appeared to be from the Early Middle Ages.
The children’s skeletons were removed from their graves, documented and waiting for further analysis, the statement said.
It’s the most recent in a series of findings in Poland of remains buried in ways that suggest people at the time believed they were dealing with vampires or other supernatural entities.
In 2022, Polish researchers found the remains of a woman at a gravesite in the village of Pień with a sickle around her neck and a triangular padlock on her foot. According to ancient beliefs, the padlock was supposed to prevent a deceased person thought to be a vampire from returning from the dead. The sickle was thought to cut the neck if the corpse tried to rise from the grave.
Professor Dariusz Polinski of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun said this type of practice became common throughout Poland in the 17th century in response to a reported vampire epidemic. In addition to practices with a sickle, sometimes corpses were burned, smashed with stones or had their heads and legs cut off.
Six so-called “vampire skeletons” were also found at a cemetery in northwest Poland in 2013. Each was buried with either a sickle laid across their necks or stones placed beneath their jaws said Lesley Gregoricka of the University of South Alabama who led the research team.
contributed to this report.
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