The Pittsburgh Fraternal Order of Police is strongly defending two of its members after the motorcycle supervisors who were part of former President Donald Trump’s motorcade in Butler County on Saturday were removed from their unit.

“There’s a dispute whether they had authorization to be there or if they decided on their own they were going to go,” said Beth Pittinger, the executive director of the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board. “We don’t know how they got there.”

The motorcycle supervisors have been transferred out of the unit while the investigation is ongoing.

Ten motorcycle officers were part of the former president’s motorcade on Saturday when would-be assassin Thomas Crooks fired from a building outside the security perimeter. Crooks killed Corey Comperatore, wounded the former president, and injured others in the crowd and law enforcement. Four officers, including the two who have been transferred, were injured.

Two Pittsburgh motorcycle cops who were assisting with security at the Trump rally and injured by shrapnel when an assassin fired on Trump were transferred away from their unit as punishment, a local Pittsburgh news station is reporting.

Sources told WPXI/11 News in Pittsburgh…

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 17, 2024

Robert Swartzwelder, the president of the Pittsburgh Fraternal Order of Police, said in a statement, “In a time when we should be honoring the heroics of these officers, we’ve created some petty administrative investigation in the midst of a serious political race.”

“They may have had permission to be there that we don’t know,” Pittinger told KDKA-TV’s Mamie Bah. “That has to be established and the public has the right to know that when we are faced with a severe shortage of officers.”

In response, the FOP has filed two grievances on behalf of the supervisors. One has been on the force for more than 30 years, and the other nearly 20.

A spokesperson for Pittsburgh police said, “The transfers were unrelated to the rally. That was an administrative decision.”