7月13日，被指派帮助保护前总统唐纳德·特朗普的当地特警队在一名潜在刺客之前，没有与负责安全的特勤局特工有过任何接触开火这些官员告诉ABC新闻。
这是计划和沟通失败的一个关键部分，最终以一名枪手告终杀死一个人在接受共和党总统候选人提名前几天发表演讲时，又有两人受重伤，特朗普受伤。
宾夕法尼亚州比弗县特警队首席神枪手杰森·伍兹(Jason Woods)说，“我们应该在特勤局成员到达时与他们进行面对面的简报，但这从未发生过。”。
“所以我认为这可能是一个关键点，我开始认为事情是错误的，因为它从来没有发生过，”伍兹说。“我们没有交流。”
在他们自暗杀企图以来的第一次公开评论中，当天在现场的特警队和他们的主管接受了美国广播公司新闻高级调查记者Aaron Katersky的独家采访。这是7月13日第一次有重要的执法人员在现场提供发生了什么的第一手资料。
他们解释说，他们尽了最大努力来阻止攻击，但现在不得不接受失败。
上周的插曲导致辞职特勤局局长金伯利.切特勒。此外，在暗杀企图发生后，一系列执法、内部和国会调查已经公布——而沟通和协调是调查人员关注的重点。
特勤局的现场团队通常由地方、县和州执法机构补充，最终负责活动的安全。
特勤局发言人安东尼·古列尔米拒绝直接回应伍兹及其同事的评论。他说，该机构“致力于更好地了解前总统特朗普遭到暗杀之前、期间和之后发生的事情，以确保这种事情不再发生。这包括全面配合国会、美国联邦调查局和其他相关调查。”
伍兹告诉美国广播公司新闻，他原本预计会与特勤局进行更多的协调，并在当天与特朗普的特工进行更多的沟通。他说，那天他们小组和在现场的特勤局特工之间的第一次交流是“直到枪击发生后”。那时，他说，“已经太晚了。"
7月13日上午，伍兹和比弗县狙击手小组的其他成员已经就位，几个小时后，特朗普将在匹兹堡郊外的巴特勒农场表演场地登台。现场布满了复杂的仓库，有些就聚集在那天设置金属探测器的位置外面。
20岁的枪手托马斯·马修·克鲁克斯引起了比弗县特警队的怀疑，但他仍然能够逃避执法，并在该县狙击手所在的大楼屋顶上占据了位置。虽然他们的狙击手拍下了克鲁克斯的照片，并向指挥部报告了可疑的存在，但克鲁克斯后来在离舞台不到200码的地方向前总统开枪。
比弗县首席侦探帕特里克·杨负责管理紧急服务单位和特警队，他说，当生命垂危时，合作是关键。
“我相信我们的团队那天尽了最大努力，”杨说。“我们在SWAT上说了很多，我们作为个人毫无意义，除非我们团结成一个团队。”
Failure of communication: Local SWAT team details account of Trump rally assassination attempt
The local SWAT team assigned to help protect former President Donald Trump on July 13 had not had any contact with the Secret Service agents in charge of security before a would-be assassinopened fire, those officers told ABC News.
It was a critical part of the planning and communications failures that ended with a gunmankilling one man, critically injuring two more and wounding Trump as he delivered a speech just days before accepting the Republican presidential nomination.
"We were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the Secret Service members whenever they arrived, and that never happened," said Jason Woods, lead sharpshooter on the SWAT team in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.
"So I think that was probably a pivotal point, where I started thinking things were wrong because it never happened," Woods said. "We had no communication."
In their first public comments since the assassination attempt, the SWAT team on the ground that day and their supervisors spoke exclusively with ABC News Senior Investigative Correspondent Aaron Katersky. It is the first time any key law enforcement personnel on-site July 13 have offered first-hand accounts of what occurred.
They explained that they did what they could to try to thwart the attack but now have to live with the failure.
The episode last week led tothe resignationof Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. And, in the wake of the assassination attempt, a series of law-enforcement, internal and congressional probes have been announced – with communications and coordination a key focus of investigators' attention.
The Secret Service, whose on-site team was supplemented as usual by local, county and state law-enforcement agencies, was ultimately responsible for security at the event.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined to respond directly to the comments from Woods and his colleagues. He said the agency "is committed to better understanding what happened before, during, and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure that never happens again. That includes complete cooperation with Congress, the FBI and other relevant investigations."
Woods told ABC News he would have expected to have seen more coordination with the Secret Service and to have had greater communication between their team on the ground that day and the agents with Trump's detail. The first communication between their group and the Secret Service agents on the scene that day, he said, was "not until after the shooting. By then, he said, "it was too late."
Woods and the rest of the Beaver County sniper team were in position by mid-morning July 13, hours before Trump was set to take the stage at the Butler Farm Show grounds, outside Pittsburgh. The site is studded by a complex of warehouses, some clustered just outside the position where metal detectors were set up that day.
Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, sparked suspicion among the Beaver County SWAT team but was still able to evade law enforcement and take position on the roof of the very building where county snipers had been posted. Though their sniper had taken pictures of Crooks and had called into Command about the suspicious presence -- Crooks later opened fire on the former president less than 200 yards from the stage.
Beaver County Chief Detective Patrick Young, who runs the Emergency Services Unit and SWAT team, said collaboration is key when lives are on the line.
"I believe our team did everything humanly possible that day," Young said. "We talk a lot on SWAT that we as individuals mean nothing until we come together as a team."
