At least five Secret Service officials involved in planning Trump’s Butler rally put on administrative leave
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(BUTLER, Penn.) — At least five U.S. Secret Service officials involved in the planning of Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, where a gunman attempted to kill the former president, have been placed on administrative leave, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
The officials are still working but not allowed to be involved in anything operational including the security planning, the sources told ABC News.
The Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility investigation has been intensifying, and while the investigation has focused on the failures, miscues and planning up to Butler, the probe is now focusing on a number of issues, including the number of classified threats against former President Trump by Iran and what the agency did in response security-wise regarding the new intelligence.
An official tells ABC News this means even more senior officials might be caught up in the review.
“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to investigating the decisions and actions of personnel related to the event in Butler, Pennsylvania and the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump,” the agency said. “The U.S. Secret Service’s mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure.”
The agency said it holds its personnel to the “highest professional standards” and would not comment further.
Trump was struck in his ear by a bullet during the assassination attempt at his campaign rally on July 13, which also killed one spectator and injured two others, according to officials. The gunman, identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by Secret Service agents.
The U.S. Secret Service recently made arrangements for Trump to resume outdoor campaign rallies by surrounding his podium with bulletproof glass, multiple sources told ABC News.
(LONDON, Ky.) — An AR-15 rifle investigators believe was used in a Kentucky freeway shooting Saturday evening that left seven people injured and nine vehicles with bullet holes was found Sunday afternoon near the crime scene as a search for a person of interest continued, authorities said.
The person of interest wanted for questioning was identified as 32-year-old Joseph A. Couch, who the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said is “considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached.”
The sheriff’s office released a photo of Couch, who allegedly fled the freeway shooting near London, Kentucky, and is believed to still be in the area, Laurel County Sheriff’s Deputy Gilbert Acciardo said during a news conference Sunday morning.
“We’re not listing him as a suspect at this point, but he probably will more than likely be a suspect before day’s end,” Acciardo said.
On Sunday afternoon, Acciardo said Couch’s vehicle was located in the area of the shootings Saturday night. He also said officers searching the area found an AR-15 rifle in the woods near the interstate.
The weapon, which investigators believe was used in the freeway shooting, was discovered in an area where a shooter could have “shot down upon the interstate from that wooded location,” Acciardo said.
“It’s a random act,” Acciardo said when asked about a possible motive for the shooting.
Police have received more than 100 calls from people reporting they may have spotted Couch, Acciardo said. He said authorities believe Couch is hiding in the woods near the interstate.
Acciardo described the shooting as “sniper-like” and said it was not the result of road rage. He said investigators do not believe the shooter knew any of the victims or had contact with them before the shooting.
Acciardo said that up to 60 members of law enforcement searched the area of the shooting until 3 a.m. Sunday before halting the search out of safety concerns, saying it was pitch black on the highway and describing the terrain where the search was being conducted as very rugged.
The search for Couch resumed at 9 a.m. local time Sunday, Acciardo said.
The FBI, the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting local authorities in the investigation, officials said.
The shooting unfolded about 5:30 p.m. local time on Interstate 75, near exit 49 about eight miles north of London, officials said.
Arriving deputies found nine vehicles had been shot in both the north and southbound lanes of I-75, Laurel County Sheriff John Root said at a news conference late Saturday night.
Root said deputies found five people with serious gunshot wounds, including one who was shot in the face. He said one vehicle contained two people who were shot.
Acciardo said Sunday that none of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries and were all in stable condition.
“A couple of our deputies, because of the severity of the injuries, loaded the people up, the injured persons, and transported them to London Hospital,” Root said.
Two additional people were injured in a car crash that occurred during the shooting, authorities said.
Root said I-75 was immediately shut down in both directions, saying that at the time, deputies didn’t know where the bullets came from.
“We couldn’t risk somebody else being shot,” Root said.
The sheriff declined to say why Couch is a person of interest in the shooting but did say it is “based on our investigation at the scene.”
He said initial reports that the shooting stemmed from a road rage incident were not accurate.
Root said Couch has an address in Woodbine, Kentucky, and the sheriff’s office described him as about 5-foot-10-inches tall and 154 pounds.
Interstate 75 was closed for more than three hours after the shooting as law enforcement officers worked to secure the scene and collect evidence.
Root did not immediately disclose the type of weapon investigators believe was used in the crime.
A motive for the shooting remained under investigation.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement on X that he is monitoring the situation.
In an interview Sunday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Christina Dinoto said she was driving with a friend southbound on I-75, heading to Tennessee, when the shooting erupted.
“All of a sudden we just heard this loud, deafening sound,” Dinoto said. “And my ear, my right ear, started ringing, and we didn’t know what the sound was, but we both looked at each other and said, was that a gunshot?”
Dinoto said that when she pulled off the interstate in Knoxville, she discovered damage to her vehicle that she suspects was caused by a bullet that may have ricocheted off another car.
The Kentucky shooting came less than a week after six people were injured in six shootings that occurred on Sept. 2 on Interstate 5 in the state of Washington between 8:26 p.m. and 11:01 p.m. local time, officials said. A suspect whose vehicle was sought in connection with several of the shootings was arrested in the Tacoma area on Sept. 3, police said.
(NEW YORK) — Ernesto has been downgraded to a tropical storm after passing over the Caribbean island of Bermuda as a hurricane without causing major damage.
The storm — which over the past week has caused major power outages and flooding in Puerto Rico and Bermuda — looks set to pass the Canadian coast on its way into the northern Atlantic by the middle of the coming week.
Ernesto is the fifth named storm and the third hurricane of this year’s Atlantic season. It made landfall in Bermuda early on Saturday, dumping 7 to 9 inches of rain and flooding parts of the island. The British Overseas Territory avoided major damage, and Ernesto is now some 200 miles northeast of Bermuda.
As of Sunday morning, Ernesto had winds of 70 mph and was moving slowly — heading north-northeast at only 9 mph — though it is predicted to pick up speed in the course of the day. Increased speed may see Ernesto again cross the 74 mph sustained winds threshold to return to Category 1 hurricane status.
All tropical alerts associated with Ernesto have now expired, with the storm far out at sea. A new tropical storm watch may be issued for southern Newfoundland later today, according to the National Hurricane Center.
But high surf and life-threatening rip currents are still anticipated over the next couple of days along the U.S. East Coast.
The entire Atlantic coast from Florida to Maine is under a high risk rip current alert on Sunday.
“Life-threatening surf and rip current conditions are likely,” the National Hurricane Center warned, “which means life-threatening rip currents are likely, and dangerous for all levels of swimmers.”
Ernesto is expected to pass close to southern Newfoundland as a post-tropical cyclone by Monday night.
(NEW YORK) — Extreme heat is gripping the Midwest before moving into the Northeast.
Chicago is in the center of an excessive heat warning that stretches north to Madison, Wisconsin, and south to Springfield, Illinois.
The heat index — what temperature it feels like with humidity — soared to a scorching 114 degrees in Chicago on Tuesday. Chicago’s actual temperature hit 98 degrees, breaking the city’s daily record of 97 degrees.
In Detroit, public school students were released three hours early on Tuesday due to the heat.
Next, the dangerous temperatures will move east.
On Wednesday, the heat index is forecast to climb to 104 degrees in Nashville, Tennessee; 100 degrees in Indianapolis; 105 in Philadelphia; and 103 in Washington, D.C.
D.C. may hit a new record-high actual temperature of 100 degrees.
By Thursday, the Northeast will cool down. But temperatures will stay in the 90s in the South as the week ends.
There are hundreds of deaths each year in the U.S. due to excessive heat, according to CDC WONDER, an online database, and scientists caution that the actual number of heat-related deaths is likely higher.
Last year marked the most heat-related deaths in the U.S. on record, according to JAMA, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association.
Click here for tips on how to stay safe in the heat.
