Years of inaction on ‘crisis’ at Secret Service set stage for shooting in Butler
Despite warnings from inside the agency about a “crisis” involving the Secret Service’s ability to protect the first family, little was done to address the problems. The years of inaction have now resulted in a fatal shooting at a residence in Butler, Pennsylvania.
In August 2015, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) told Congress that a “crisis” was developing within the agency due to underfunding and understaffing. The agency’s workforce, which had fallen by 400 agents since 2013, was struggling to keep up with the demands of protecting the White House, Air Force One and the first family.
Further, the agents were working extreme hours, and morale was plummeting. By 2019, the number of agents stationed at the White House had shrunk to only 30-40 agents on duty at a time, rather than the normal 100 agents.
“We’re not in a crisis right now, but we’re close,” said Edward Byrne, head of the National Treasury Employees Union, in August 2019. “What’s going to happen when that crisis hits is what I fear.”
What happened in Butler, Pennsylvania
On September 23, at around 6:30 AM, a former Secret Service agent, 30-year-old Lawrence Richard Russell Taylor, was killed in a police shootout at his residence in Butler, Pennsylvania. Taylor, a former agent since 2010, had retired from the service in 2020. His death was said to be in connection with his “erratic behavior” days before the fatal shooting. The police were reportedly called to Taylor’s residence, where they arrived to find a chaotic scene involving multiple gunshots.