FBI News Conference after Trump Rally Shooting

So my name is Kevin Rojek. That’s R-O-J-E-K. I’m the special agent in charge of the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office. The first thing I want to say is that the FBI stands with the people of Butler County in Western Pennsylvania and our hearts go out to the victims of this heinous act which occurred today. This is our community, and I want to let the public know that the FBI has deployed a number of our resources, including investigative agents, our evidence response team, bomb technicians, and we have additional resources coming from other field offices, as well as from FBI headquarters, including our evidence response from Quantico, Virginia. We have intelligence analysts as well working from our field office in Pittsburgh, working feverishly to attempt to identify the individual who did this and any motives behind why this was done.

(01:09)
Right now we need the public’s help. Anyone who was on scene who saw anything, who identified any information, please report that to the FBI using either the phone number 1-800 call FBI, or online at FBI.gov slash butler. This evening we had what we’re calling an assassination attempt against our former president, Donald Trump. It’s still an active crime scene. As I mentioned, we have a number of agents on scene. We also are working closely with other federal agencies, our state partners and our local police partners as well. Again, at this time, we are not prepared to identify who the shooter is. We are close to that identification and as soon as we are 100% confident in who that individual is, we will share it with the press. With that being said also, we do not currently have an identified motive, although our investigators are working tirelessly to attempt to identify what that motive was. At this time, I’m going to turn over the podium to Colonel Chris Paris from the Pennsylvania State Police.

Thank you very much. My name is Colonel Chris Paris, P-A-R-I-S, Commissioner of Pennsylvania State Police. I would just like to say that the state police have been in regular contact with the governor’s office and the full support and assets of the entire agency are behind the FBI and our other federal and municipal partners to assist with this investigation. The thoughts and prayers of the Pennsylvania State Police are likewise with the victims of this terrible act. We are prepared to support this investigation in any way, shape or form, and we stand ready to participate in a full, fair and competent and thorough investigation. To give you an operational rundown, Deputy Commissioner of Operations, Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens, is behind me and he will discuss the operational portion that’s being conducted by the Pennsylvania State Police. Lieutenant Colonel Bivens.

Good evening. So let me describe for you a little bit about the scene that we have over there. As you know, there was a grandstand, a very large area, a lot of people there when this all unfolded. The former president had come out and begun to speak shortly after six o’clock this evening and within about 10 to 15 minutes, a number of sounds were heard and it became apparent that shots were being fired in that direction. It was a chaotic scene. Law enforcement, I believe, acted heroically, quickly identifying and neutralizing the threat as well as responding to assist the various victims. PSP had a significant presence on the scene along with all of our federal partners at the time of the shooting. We have since enhanced that presence significantly, bringing in resources from all over the commonwealth to ensure that we have a speedy, thorough investigation. We are working very closely with the FBI as we work through this.

(04:44)
As you can imagine, because of the variety of crimes that have been committed, some are under federal jurisdiction, some are under state jurisdiction, and so we’re working through all of that. Not an issue at all. The FBI has maintained the lead on the attempted assassination. PSP will take the lead on the homicide and the shootings of the other individuals in the grandstand area. And so there are a lot of witnesses to be interviewed, a lot of things to be processed. There were some complicators that hopefully the next time we speak, we can describe for you, but some complicators that slowed down some of the processing and the positive identification of the shooter. But know that at this time, we have no reason to believe that there is any other existing threat out there. We are doing everything we can to make sure that this is thoroughly investigated and that if there is any information developed that anyone else was involved, that between PSP and the FBI, that will very quickly be followed up on. So I think at this time, we would open it up to questions from all of you.

Was this a lone wolf attack?

Again, I think it’s too early to say that. We have one shooter tentatively identified, but we’re not stopping there. We’re following up on a lot of information. It will be some time until we can conclusively say or answer that question, I think.

How long do you think that guy was hiding up there? We saw the snipers up there as the crowds were kind of mowing in and it looked like they had a pretty good viewpoint to check everyone out. How long had that guy been out there?

Again, that’ll all be part of the investigation.

Come up to the mic.

That will all be part of the investigation, but I can tell you that preliminarily, it appears everything unfolded very quickly. So again, we’ll have more information on that, but it’s just too early to start definitively saying this happened at this exact time.

It wasn’t just inside the security perimeter, right? That that building was outside of the security check point or outside the security check point?

We will have that information for you. It was some distance outside of the security point.

Colonel, can you comment on reports that there were people who saw someone on the roof and tried to alert authorities?

We’re following up on those. I will tell you that I am aware of those and I am aware that law enforcement had responded to a number of reports of suspicious activity. The specific response to this will be all part of the after action, but yes, law enforcement was responding to check on several suspicious occurrences.

What were the other suspicious occurrences?

That will all be part of the investigation.

So you said that you’re close to identifying the shooter. Could you at least confirm that he is from Butler County, Pennsylvania? Is there anything else? Did he have any affiliation with that company, do you know?

So again, we’re not prepared at this time to provide the identity of the potential shooter. We’re in the process of doing the confirmation and once we have the confirmation, we’ll release the name officially to the press, but at this time, we can’t give any further information on the potential shooter.

From the coroner or his family, or what all seems to be done?

No, it’s a matter of doing biometric confirmations. So there was no identification on the individual, as an example. So we are looking at photographs right now and we’re trying to run his DNA and get biometric confirmation.

Would you be able to comment just what police found left behind? Any possible devices? Did you find any extra guns, just anything else you’d be willing to comment?

Not at this time, no. We’re still in the process of an active investigation, so we’d like to reserve releasing any information like that until we have more.

Prior to today, was there any heightened threat level, credible threat level that you guys were aware of more so than what is typical for an event like this?

From the FBI’s perspective, no, we did not have any specific threat information related to this event.

Can I ask. You talked about how it happened so quickly and we know that there is at least two casualties including the gun man at this point that we’re aware of. It could have been a lot worse.

Absolutely. Oh, absolutely.

Can you comment more about that and how it was taken care of so quickly?

So I think the credit goes to not only the Secret Service who was on site but also the state and local partners who were there on site and were able to react immediately when the incident occurred.

Do you know how many officers fired their weapons?

I do not.

I understand that it’s very early, there’s still going to be a lot of questions, but is this a failure of security?

Really, at this point, we’re not going to make that assessment. There’s an active investigation. A lot of things need to occur investigatively to make those determinations of what, if any, failures there were. So we really, we can’t comment on that at this time.

So you can’t say if Secret Service had checked those buildings or were keeping a close eye or…

Really have to defer to Secret Service for those questions.

Was there any law enforcement at the AGR property prior to the event? Were there police at that location at any point during the event?

Are you saying the location where the shooter was located?

Yes.

I don’t have any information on that. You’d have to defer to Secret Service.

When do you think you will release… When will the name of the shooter be released? I mean, any point of when that might happen? Tomorrow or…

So that’ll be as soon as we’ve confirmed 100%, we’re willing to release that. As far as the contact information for the press, we should be able to do that within the next few hours, I imagine.

So there was a vehicle being checked not far from here, we’ve also heard a possible related scene in Bethel Park, is there anything you can tell us tonight about other areas where law enforcement may be searching in relation to this event?

Again, right now we’re tracking down all leads and doing all interviews and tracking anything that we can regarding suspicious locations, vehicles locations, interviewing individuals. So it’s all related to this event, but I can’t confirm or deny anything that’s going on beyond that.

Tell us about the weapon that the shooter used.

As far as the details of the weapon?

Yeah, what kind of a rifle was that? What did he use?

Okay. Until we have the confirmation of who the shooter is, we’ll release that as part of the investigative details later.

You said that [inaudible 00:11:48] extra resources and one of the things that you said was bomb technicians. So is this standard procedure or do you have reason to believe that there are bombs somewhere in Butler County? Can you just walk us through that?

It’s primarily standard procedure of any suspicious packages. In this case, there was identification of suspicious packages around where the shooter was and so we deployed, in an abundance of caution, bomb assets to make sure that those were cleared for investigators to move safely in the area. We’re still working on… It’s still an active crime scene, so I’m not going to say that the scene is 100% clear at this time.

Why aren’t there any Secret Service agents here right now for the press conference?

The Secret Service wasn’t available for the press conference at this time.

What kind of specific packages are you talking about? You’re talking about packages, suspicious package is like what here to the shooter?

Really anything. I don’t have specifics on what they were looking at. People in the crowd will leave badges as they’re fleeing the scene like this, so any suspicious packages we have to treat as it may be an explosive device.

And how quickly, earlier, I guess, you said the Secret Service are not here to talk about it I guess, but when you guys jumped into action, all law enforcement, and were able to take down and shooter, how quickly did everybody jump in and who ended up taking him out?

So it was immediate and it was… We’re still trying to figure that out, so we will wait until we have more definitive information regarding that investigatively.

What about the bystander, the person in the crowd? Do you have any information about how they were killed?

My understanding was it was from the shooter, but again, those will be details that are released later.

Will you search homes or apartments as a part of your method of identifying the individual?

So if that’s where the leads take us, absolutely.

Was Donald Trump hit with a bullet, do you know for sure, or was it potentially something else that could…

I don’t have that specific information as far as the injuries to the former president.

I understand you’re not releasing the suspect’s identification right now, but as you know, is this person known to you guys? Is he somebody that you guys have been looking at, who the threat seems possibly being online, et cetera, et cetera?

Again, the information that we currently have, we’re looking at that obviously very intently, and as we know that information, we’ll release that as well. So we will need to plan another time for a follow-up press conference.

[inaudible 00:14:18]?

We’re looking at all investigative leads and everything from… And that’s why we asked the public, because I’m sure there’ll be cell phone video, there’ll be all kinds of information that we’ll use to fully flesh out exactly what happened here.

I know you’re saying you can’t say what type of gun it is, but do you know how many shots were fired?

I don’t. I don’t have that information as far as… That’ll come out in the investigation as well.

Is there an identification tonight on the other victims?

As far as the civilians,

The civilians that were injured and killed.

Yeah, go on.

So we do have identification on those. We’re not prepared to release it at this time. We have notified a number of family members, but they have not had an opportunity to notify extended family and things. I would confirm for you that we did have one individual killed and I know I heard somebody say about two victims, there were three in total besides the former president, so two critically wounded, one killed.

At this point, do you know if they were sitting near each other and where in relation to the former president?

I don’t have their exact seating by individual. Again, that’ll all be part of the investigation, but their shots were scattered somewhat and so they weren’t just in the one particular location.

You’re saying just one fatality as of right now?

Yes.

The shooter and one fatality?

The shooter plus one fatality.

Oh, thank you.

So there was one victim of the shooter who was killed and then the shooter was killed.

And then two remain critical.

Yes ma’am.

Witnesses say they saw a semi-automatic rifle was used by the shooter. Can you share any more details of…

I’ve heard those reports as well, and again, we do have a good idea of what the weapon was, but again, that’s all part of the ongoing investigation and I’m not trying to be cagey about that. When the SAC talked about the need to be very methodical and to be cautious with that scene, we are doing just that. We don’t want anybody else getting hurt and candidly there are some concerns that we’ll be able to talk more about later on about just what those concerns are and continue to be.

Have you talked to the shooter’s family yet?

That’s all part of the investigation.

After the event, there were a lot of really angry people. Are you monitoring, have there been any threats in response to this? Are you worried? Have there been any specific threats?

That’s certainly a concern and we’re monitoring that whole situation. I mentioned that we’re bringing a lot of assets to bear. And so like the FBI utilizing their analysts, we also have the Pennsylvania Criminal Intelligence Center. We will utilize the resources of our intelligence division and the criminal intelligence center to be able to monitor. For concerns about any threats, regardless of the side of the issue or the political spectrum, we want to make sure that we try and avoid any further violence.

But no, nothing specific so far?

No, sir.

Without identifying by name, can you say anything about the other folks who were injured or killed? Were they adults, male, female, anything else?

They were adults and they’re male.

All three?

Yes.

How difficult of a day has this department known, or all the departments, on top of losing family members including the civilians who were gunned down while they just went to a rally to try and celebrate, I guess, the upcoming election. What are those conversations like and how do you kind of get through that?

We have trained investigators and we’re partnered hand-in-hand with the FBI again because we’ve got some federal violations, some state violations, and so our investigators are going out methodically, and we have a large team of investigators that are going out, dividing up these interviews and trying to conduct them as quickly as possible, and then there’ll be follow-ups with the FBI asking for people to call in tips. I have no doubt that we will receive a lot of additional information that will also require follow up. But again, we’re working very well together and it’s only a short matter of time until we get through all of those interviews.

How close a call was it for President Trump?

There were no police hit with bullets.

From your experience, how close a call was it for the president?

I’m not going to speculate or comment on that.

Have any of you talked to the president? Did any of you have any kind of reaction or…

No.

No.

Which law enforcement agencies were tasked with securing this particular rally outside of the United States Secret Service?

Well, Secret Service always has the lead on securing something like this, but then they work very closely. And I hate to use the word routine, but it is a fairly routine matter for all of our agencies to work jointly with the Secret Service. And it really depends on the venue, on what information is out there, what number of resources are devoted to it, and we work with them to provide whatever is requested by the Secret Service, but they’re the lead in that security.

Was there anything about this venue that made it particularly difficult to secure?

I would defer to the Secret Service to answer that. They would’ve done the initial assessment.

Was the rooftop part of what was being secured? Was the rooftop, given its proximity to the event, part of that process?

It’s my understanding that was outside of the perimeter.

Did this shooter have any previous history?

We’re not going to comment on anything about the shooter.

Did the agency deny Trump’s team extra security? Any of the agencies that are out there?

Not that I’m aware of.

If Trump had been the nominee already, would he have had additional security for this event?

There again, Secret Service has the lead and I’m not going to comment or speculate on what may or may not be provided at any given point depending on their status as a candidate. What I will tell you is that in my experience, Secret Service does an excellent job of maintaining security on protectees. They’re very cautious, they don’t hesitate to ask for resources and candidly, we don’t hesitate to supply those resources.

Deputy Colonel, you’re asking for the public’s help. Can you elaborate and be more specific about what you’d really like to see from the public, if it’s videos, photos, personal accounts?

I think the videos and photos would be very helpful, and I think that once the shooter is identified, anyone that has specific information on that shooter, that would be very helpful as well to help us assess motive. And again, as I mentioned earlier, we are absolutely not taking for granted that this was a lone wolf attack, and so we would be looking for any additional information that might point us toward anybody else that may have had a hand in this.

At this point, what is the main focus of the investigation? What’s the most important thing for you right now, a few hours later?

Well, there’s not any one single focus. I mean, certainly the immediate focus was life safety, getting the former president out of there and to care, getting care to the other victims and trying to secure the scene as quickly as possible. It shifted then from a life safety priority to then an investigative priority. And so, I guess, if I had to point to where we are right now, the single greatest priority would be to identifying a motive and whether there was anyone else involved.

We’re just beginning the political season, are you guys concerned with all of these rallies that happened and how they’re set up? Is this going to change maybe the venues?

Again, I would refer you to the Secret Service in terms of what they work out with the campaigns. We will continue to supply resources as I’m sure the FBI will, and local partners as well.

When this was announced, there was quite a few days of a heads-up that people get ready, come to this park rally. From a law enforcement perspective, when you announce a big event like this all that time in advance of a week out, does it give people more time to plan something like this?

Well, I suppose, but there’s a balance, I would think, that any of the campaigns on either side tried a way. The point of them announcing it, I suspect, is because they want the crowd, and so it’s not up to us in law enforcement to tell them when they should announce or how they should announce or how they should conduct it. We offer our best advice. Again, working hand-in-hand with the Secret Service, offer our best advice of how best to secure and protect that venue.

Sir, considering how many people were there and you have packed in there and you have somebody at an elevated position with potentially a high-powered rifle, how lucky is it that we were only talking about a couple victims, as sad and tragic as that is?

Well, we’re certainly grateful that we don’t have even more victims. And again, in terms of how this could have occurred, that it will be part of this after action report and an investigation that occurs so that we can hopefully ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again.

Has an autopsy been conducted yet or is it scheduled?

It has not conducted yet.

Do you have an estimate on how many people were at the rally?

I do not.

If somebody has a video or photos, where should they send it?

So we have the 1-800 call FBI if you have audio tips and then we set up a specific tip line for audio and video and that’s fbi.gov/butler.

And they should send you just any video?

Anything that anyone has that is related to this incident that they think may be of assistance investigatively. We’ll take anything and we will analyze it and we’ll make the determination if it’s of investigative value. Go ahead.

So from what you’ve been briefed on, it sounds like law enforcement only knew he was up there until shots were fired. Is that what you’re hearing?

So that is the assessment at this time, that…

So are you surprised that a sniper was able to fire off a handful of shots at the former president? I mean…

Again, we’re still working through the security apparatus that the Secret Service had in place, what potentially happened. There’s going to be a long investigation into exactly what took place and how the individual was able to get access to the location, what type of weapon he had, all that, it is really days, weeks, and months of investigation.

But how was it that he was able to get off like four or five shots?

It is surprising, but again, all the details of that will come out later in investigation.

Back to the perimeter of this building. I think it’s going to be really difficult for people to understand that this building is a very high vantage point, some a hundred meters away, and where this is happening isn’t part of that program. What goes into that conversation over what is in and out, and why wouldn’t that be?

Again, the Secret Service really needs to answer that question. They conduct the initial site survey, they do the initial security assessments and determine where the different security locations should be, and they’re the ones who are in charge of securing the scene. We, along with other state and local assets, are there to support the Secret Service and their mission.

How many troopers and agents were at the rally, obviously before the shooting, and how is that number determined and should perhaps there have been more?

So I don’t have the specific numbers. I doubt you do as well.

No, I can speak just for PSP. We had, physically on site there, probably 30 to 40 members of PSP, but we also have additional resources in the area. We utilize aviation, for example, and a variety of other resources, dogs to sweep beforehand that really aren’t counted in that. And again, the number is driven by what the request is from the Secret Service. In their defense, what I would want to say is it is incredibly difficult to have a venue open to the public and to secure that against any possible threat, against a very determined attacker. That’s a huge lift to try and do it. And again, the investigation will really give us an opportunity to take a look at where any failures occurred and what can be done better in the future.

Lieutenant Colonel Bivens, do you know when another briefing might be held? Tomorrow, perhaps?

We don’t have one scheduled, but I would tell you we will let you know and give you plenty of notice. Certainly as soon as additional things develop that would be noteworthy or of interest to you, we’ll get that scheduled and have another with you.

Locally, what can residents, businesses expect to happen with the investigation over the next couple of days? What’s going to be going on there? The people…

Well, again, the interviews will all be occurring and so they may see law enforcement in their communities. People came from a wide area to come to this rally, I’m told, so there’s going to be law enforcement fanning out, and as additional calls, photos, videos come in, those additional interviews will result in law enforcement being out in the community conducting those interviews. But otherwise, they really shouldn’t see any other significant impact in the community.

Would you confirm whether it’s a male or female, the homicide, the bystander who died?

It’s a male.

A male?

Yes.

I’m from a European outlet from Poland and I’m already getting text messages from back home and people are asking, how could this happen? What’s going on in America? I know that it’s a philosophical question, but how could you talk to the people outside the United States about what happened here in Butler?

Well, again, what I would say is it’s a tragic incident that occurred. We’re not in a position to start second guessing how or why or anything else at this point. Just know that it will be thoroughly investigated. If there is anyone to prosecute, that will be done, and we’ll move forward, but I don’t have a good answer for you.

We’ll just take one last question.

I know that the PSP said that you guys were not aware of any additional requests from the Trump team for security. What about the FBI? Was there an additional request or additional security from the Trump team and was that denied in any way, shape or form?

No. No. There was no additional request for security that was ever denied by the FBI.

What does the FBI do in these events? What is your role?

So we showed up after the fact. We were monitoring the event, but it was once the incident occurred that we come and we take the primary jurisdiction for the investigation. Thank you. As we have additional information, we’ll provide it. Thank you.

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