Trump Attempted Assassination Shooter's Roof Position to Assassinate Trump
TrumpAttemptedAssassinationShooter'sRoofPositionToAssassinateTrump
Trump Shooting Who Ordered The Low Security?
TroubleshootingWhoOrderedTheLowSecurity?
This smells like a setup gone wrong. Thank God!
There can be no doubt that the Shooter's Roof Position was earmarked for him to Assassinate Trump
Looking at the below building map it is blatantly obvious that the roof position the shooter had was the best and shortest line of sight to attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. There can be no possible excuse that can be provided by The US Secret Service Director to the Oversight Committee as to why he had not ordered Secret Service Snipers to be positioned on the building where the shooter was obviously instructed and allowed to set up in the well planned attempted assassination of Donald Trump
JULY 16, 2024
Reporting on Congress
Speaker Mike Johnson today became the highest-ranking politician to call for President Biden to fire the Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle. “Yesterday I said that she should resign. It’s clear that she has no intention to do so, but the oversight here, the mistakes, the ineptitude, whatever it is, was inexcusable,” Johnson said on Fox Business.
Oversight Committee chair to subpoena Secret Service director for testimony on Trump assassination attempt
The House and Senate Homeland Security Committees have said they will also be looking into the shooting. The head of the House Homeland Security Panel, Rep. Mark Green, invited Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, FBI Director Chris Wray and Cheatle to testify before lawmakers next Tuesday to examine the circumstances surrounding the attack.
Eric Trump calls failures that led to attempted assassination of his father "infuriating"
He said the fact that snipers and rally attendees spotted the shooter as early as 26 minutes before the first shots were fired is "infuriating." ..... "I grew up competing in the shooting sports. I know that world very, very well, and a rifle shot at 130 yards is like a four-inch punt, right? You don't, you don't miss it if you're competent," he said, adding, "I'm not an overly mushy person ... but, you know, somebody was watching down on him because it could have gone very, very differently."
Eric Trump said it was "hard to believe" the Secret Service would overlook a building as large as the one the gunman used to gain his vantage point. "A big building that size, 130 yards away from a podium, from an elevated position — you don't need to be a security expert to realize that you might want to have somebody up there."
At the Republican convention, senators berate the Secret Service director.
Senators chased Kimberly A. Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, at the Republican National Convention and demanded she answer questions about the assassination attempt on Donald J. Trump
Republican senators, including a member of the Senate’s leadership, accosted the director of the Secret Service in a suite at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, demanding that she resign or provide a full explanation for the security lapses that led to the near-miss assassination attempt against former President Donald J. Trump.
Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming, the third-ranking Senate Republican, and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee aggressively confronted the agency’s director, Kimberly A. Cheatle, at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. A staff member for one of the senators videotaped the confrontation and sent it to a reporter.
The video, which Ms. Blackburn also posted on X, shows Mr. Barrasso berating Ms. Cheatle over why Mr. Trump was allowed to go onstage for his Saturday evening rally in Butler, Pa., when authorities had already identified as suspicious a man who turned out to be the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks.
“You put him within less than an inch of his life,” Mr. Barrasso said to Ms. Cheatle, almost yelling. “So resignation or full explanation.”
Ms. Cheatle declined to answer their questions and instead walked out of the suite. Mr. Barrasso and Ms. Blackburn followed her down a corridor inside the arena and up a flight of stairs, continuing to yell questions at her and telling her she owed them answers.
Ms. Cheatle is in Milwaukee as the senior security official at the event. The Republican National Convention is a “national special security event,” the highest threat profile given by the federal government, because of its size and scope. Both Mr. Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, are under Secret Service protection.
In a joint interview after the encounter, Mr. Barrasso and Ms. Blackburn said they had been on a briefing call with Ms. Cheatle and the F.B.I. director, Christopher Wray, earlier on Wednesday. The senators complained that they had been waiting in the queue for questions when the call ended and said the briefing had been inadequate.
“We were trying to get to the root of what had happened, how the shooter was on the roof by himself and able to get off the shots,” Mr. Barrasso said. He dismissed the briefing as a “cover-your-ass call.”
Both senators said that when they heard that Ms. Cheatle was in the arena, they decided to confront her. Mr. Barrasso said that they were joined by Senators James Lankford of Oklahoma and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota.
Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service, did not directly respond to questions about the incident. But he issued a statement saying that “continuity of operations is paramount during a critical incident” and that Ms. Cheatle “has no intentions to step down.”
“She deeply respects members of Congress,” Mr. Guglielmi continued, “and is fiercely committed to transparency in leading the Secret Service through the internal investigation and strengthening the agency through lessons learned in these important internal and external reviews.”
Interviewed inside the convention arena, Mr. Barrasso said that he and Ms. Blackburn only gave up their pursuit of Ms. Cheatle after she fled into a restroom. “She ran up a flight of steps, and we were up with her,” he said. “And it looked like she then went into a ladies’ room and her own security closed the door and blocked the door.”
Live Updates: Trump rally shooting investigation continues as new details emerge about assassination attempt
Trump Shooting Live Updates: Lawmakers Assail Decision to Let Campaign Rally Go Ahead
Speaker Mike Johnson urged President Biden to fire the Secret Service director as outrage grew over the agency’s call to let the former president take the stage even as the police searched for a person they considered suspicious.
The scene of the rally where a would-be assassin fired on former President Donald J. Trump in Butler, Pa.Credit...Kristian Thacker for The New York Times
Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday joined calls for President Biden to fire the Secret Service director, after new disclosures by investigators further intensified scrutiny of the agency’s decisions in the hours and minutes before a would-be assassin fired at former President Donald J. Trump.
Lawmakers reacted furiously to the revelation that Mr. Trump had been allowed to take the stage last weekend at a campaign rally in western Pennsylvania even as law enforcement officers searched for a potentially dangerous person who would later come shockingly close to killing the Republican nominee for president.
Here’s what else to know:
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Missed opportunities: The Secret Service allowed a building within a rifle’s range to be excluded from its secure perimeter, creating a blind spot close to Mr. Trump that the gunman exploited. A reconstruction of events at the rally on Saturday showed other missed chances to avert the shooting.
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Uncertain motive: F.B.I. officials told members of Congress that the gunman had used his cellphone to search for images of Mr. Trump, President Biden and other public figures — but that his motives remained unclear. Officials said the 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa., had also searched for dates of Mr. Trump’s appearances and of the Democratic National Convention.
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Secret Service fallout: Republican senators, including a member of the chamber’s leadership, accosted the agency’s director, Kimberly A. Cheatle, in a suite at the Republican National Convention late Wednesday, demanding that she resign or provide a full explanation for the security lapses that led to the assassination attempt against Mr. Trump. She is scheduled to appear next week before two congressional committees that are examining the shooting.
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Mourning the slain: A public visitation will be held on Thursday for Corey Comperatore, the volunteer firefighter and father of two who was killed in the shooting. A private funeral will follow on Friday. Two other people who were gravely injured in the shooting remained in serious condition.
Shooting followed "absolute and abysmal failure," expert says
A former police chief who worked event security for two former presidents said the shooting followed an "an absolute and abysmal failure" on the part of the Secret Service to protect Trump. The agency is ultimately responsible for the candidate's safety, said Stan Kephart.
"You don't get to blame other people," said Kephart, who is now a consulting expert on law enforcement event security. "They are under your control."
At least a dozen police officers and sheriff's deputies were assisting the U.S. Secret Service and Pennsylvania State Police with rally security.
The U.S. Secret Service is facing mounting questions about the security flaws that allowed the shooter to fire from a rooftop near the rally
Local authorities told Secret Service they couldn't secure building Trump shooter used
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has said it was going to be up to local law enforcement to secure the building from which the man who shot former President Donald Trump opened fire.
But CBS Pittsburgh reports that Butler County District Attorney Rich Goldinger said the Secret Service was told local police couldn't be responsible for securing the AGR building during the Trump rally.
"I don't know whose responsibility that building was," Goldinger said. "But someone should have been there."
Butler Township manager Tom Knights told the station, "It was indicated we did not have the manpower to take that task on, as well, based on our number of officers on duty."
Knights confirmed that the message was sent to the Secret Service two days before the Trump rally.
Butler Township also told the agency its team could only handle traffic control. CBS Pittsburgh learned the Secret Service never responded to those messages.
Local police told the Secret Service before the rally that they did not have the manpower to place a patrol car outside the building where the gunman would later position himself, Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told CBS Pittsburgh.
The Butler Township officer in charge told Secret Service this during a preplanning meeting about a week before the rally. The news about this conversation was first reported by the Washington Post.
Local police instead planned to secure the building with police personnel and tactical teams, a law enforcement official said.
The building had three snipers from local tactical teams positioned inside, overlooking the crowd. One of those snipers spotted the gunman and photographed him. The local sniper also saw the gunman looking through a rangefinder and immediately radioed his command post, according to a local law enforcement officer.
–Nicole Sganga, Andy Sheehan
Sniper who took out gunman fired one round
The Secret Service sniper who neutralized the gunman fired one round and was assisted by a spotter, according to two federal law enforcement officials with knowledge of the response to the shooting.
The sniper who took out the gunman was located on the roof behind and to Trump's to his left — the square furthest to the right in the below map.
Trump rally shooter's motive still unclear as Biden urges calm
FBI & Secret Service Pressor for The Trump Rally Shooting: Assassination Attempt Investigation
Timeline of Trump rally shooting shows witnesses alerted officers 2 minutes before gunfire - CBS News
Sniper took a picture of Trump rally shooter before attack, source says
A sniper from a local tactical team deployed to assist the U.S. Secret Service at Trump's rally took a picture of the gunman and saw him looking through a rangefinder minutes before he tried to assassinate the former president, a local law enforcement officer with direct knowledge of the events told CBS News.
INLTV World News Comment:
Could you imagine the world uproar if a photo was shown to have been taken of a shooter looking through his rifle range site a minute or so before shooting at Queen Elizabeth II or King Charles III of the United Kingdom...without any action been taken to neutralize the shooter in some way before he had a chance to take a shot at Queen Elizabeth II or King Charles III of the United Kingdom
Cellphone video taken Saturday shows rally attendees pointing toward the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and trying to alert authorities to his presence — a full two minutes before the 20-year-old opened fire.
Open campaign events, such as Saturday's, are tough to secure against all threats, but insiders said they were surprised that the gunman was able to scale a roof overlooking the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Donald Trump was speaking.
The U.S. Secret Service is facing mounting questions about the security flaws that allowed the shooter to fire from a rooftop near the rally.
Cellphone video taken Saturday shows rally attendees pointing toward the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and trying to alert authorities to his presence — a full two minutes before the 20-year-old opened fire.
Mr Trump was hit in the ear in the assassination attempt but has said "God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening", while one spectator - named as 50-year-old Corey Comperatore - was killed and two others seriously injured.
Security experts familiar with the demands of keeping politicians safe said "a fundamental security failure" occurred to allow the gunman to get close enough to carry out his attack.
Among those to comment was Steve Nottingham, who has helped provide security for visiting world leaders, including presidents.
The former Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team commander, suggested pre-event research and real-time monitoring of places a gunman could shoot from had broken down.
Trump Make America Great Again
Text PENNSYVALIA TO 88022
Speaking to "CBS Mornings" co-host Tony Dokoupil from the floor of the convention in Milwaukee Wednesday morning, Eric Trump said his father has referred to the injury as "the greatest earache he's ever had." .... "You know, he was millimeters away from having his life expunged ... I'm sure the ear doesn't feel well," Eric Trump said.
Secret Service Has Some 'Splainin to Do
Zero legitimate explanation for how a man with a rifle got onto a roof only 120 meters away from Trump with a clear line of sight.
Donald Trump Assassination Attempt
Analysis of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump
USWeekly.com.au Analysis of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump
Leroy Fletcher Prouty (January 24, 1917 – June 5, 2001) served as Chief of Special Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President John F. Kennedy.
Live Updates: Trump rally shooting investigation continues as new details emerge about assassination attempt
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/trump-rally-shooting-investigation/
New details continue to emerge in the investigation into the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, who is now at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee with his ear still bandaged and with increased security evident around him.
The gunman's motive in the Saturday attack on the former president remains unclear five days after he opened fire at Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — wounding Trump and two others and killing a rallygoer. The U.S. Secret Service is facing mounting questions about the security flaws that enabled the shooter to fire from a rooftop near the rally.
Eric Trump, the former president's son, told CBS News his father doesn't have stitches but has a "nice flesh wound." He said his father's hearing is fine and that he is "in great spirits."
Details about the moments before the shooting are raising more questions. Cellphone video taken Saturday shows rally attendees pointing toward the shooter, later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, and trying to alert authorities to his presence — a full two minutes before he opened fire.
Even before that, a sniper from a local tactical team deployed to assist the U.S. Secret Service at the rally took a picture of the gunman, saw him looking through a rangefinder, and immediately radioed to the command post, a local law enforcement officer with direct knowledge of the events told CBS News.
A federal law enforcement bulletin obtained by CBS News identified the gunman as "an apparent lone attacker." The FBI is investigating whether he was a politically motivated homegrown domestic violent extremist.
The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general is opening an investigation into the rally's planning, and President Biden said he is ordering an independent review to determine what went wrong.
Local authorities told Secret Service they couldn't secure building Trump shooter used
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has said it was going to be up to local law enforcement to secure the building from which the man who shot former President Donald Trump opened fire.
But CBS Pittsburgh reports that Butler County District Attorney Rich Goldinger said the Secret Service was told local police couldn't be responsible for securing the AGR building during the Trump rally.
"I don't know whose responsibility that building was," Goldinger said. "But someone should have been there."
Butler Township manager Tom Knights told the station, "It was indicated we did not have the manpower to take that task on, as well, based on our number of officers on duty."
Knights confirmed that the message was sent to the Secret Service two days before the Trump rally.
Butler Township also told the agency its team could only handle traffic control. CBS Pittsburgh learned the Secret Service never responded to those messages.
"All I know is our township police department was very clear that we did not have the manpower for it," Knights said.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/trump-rally-shooting-investigation/#post-update-fb1427a2
Local police told the Secret Service before the rally that they did not have the manpower to place a patrol car outside the building where the gunman would later position himself, Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told CBS Pittsburgh.
The Butler Township officer in charge told Secret Service this during a preplanning meeting about a week before the rally. The news about this conversation was first reported by the Washington Post.
Local police instead planned to secure the building with police personnel and tactical teams, a law enforcement official said.
The building had three snipers from local tactical teams positioned inside, overlooking the crowd. One of those snipers spotted the gunman and photographed him. The local sniper also saw the gunman looking through a rangefinder and immediately radioed his command post, according to a local law enforcement officer.
Shooting followed "absolute and abysmal failure," expert says
A former police chief who worked event security for two former presidents said the shooting followed an "an absolute and abysmal failure" on the part of the Secret Service to protect Trump. The agency is ultimately responsible for the candidate's safety, said Stan Kephart.
"You don't get to blame other people," said Kephart, who is now a consulting expert on law enforcement event security. "They are under your control."
At least a dozen police officers and sheriff's deputies were assisting the U.S. Secret Service and Pennsylvania State Police with rally security.
–Nicole Sganga, Andy Sheehan
1. Leroy Fletcher Prouty, a former CIA cornel stated in his book 'The Secret Team' that one can work out who was behind ordering, allowing, encouraging, arranging and/or orchestrating an attempted or successful assassination ..... one first has to find out who was responsible to reducing the amount of security protecting a politician, royal family member or other important public figure, that allowed such attempted or successful assassination to take place. Once it is arranged by those in control of the amount, effectiveness and thoroughness and professional use of available security techniques and resources to be severely reduced, allowing easy opportunities for an assassination to easily take place, then it allows anyone of the thousands of people, groups, organizations and/or networks that would want to assassinate that high profile person to do their job. Thus, those who are the main people, organizations, groups and networks, who would not want to take a risk of allowing Donald Trump to run in the November 2024 USA Elections, because his is fast becoming the hot favourite in the polls to win, can help have Donald Trump assassinated, just by reducing the amount, effectiveness and thoroughness and professional use of available security techniques and resources to be severely reduced, allowing easy opportunities for an assassination to easily take place..... without it been possible to easily point the finger at them being behind the attempted or successful assassination of Donald Trump.
2. On the undisputable evidence, the USA Security Services allowed the opportunity for the shooter to set up an excellent firing position on a nearby roof which should have occupied by a USA Security Services Sniper.
3 A large tree protected Trump Shooter.
4. Crooks was a registered Republican, according to state voter records, and donated $15 to a Democratic political action committee when he was 17.
5. One has to take into account the timing of the attempted assassination of former Donald Trump who the polls says will most likely be appointed the next USA President. The fact that the attempted assassination of former Donald Trump happened an extremely short time before the Republican Convention where it was certain Donald Trump would be named at the official Republican Candidate for the next USA President. Had this well planned and well executed, the attempted assassination of former Donald Trump been successful, the Republican Convention would have had to nominate a different, less well known person for the Republican USA President Nominee, which would have been a very difficult decision to have to make within a few days. The Reality would have been that the Republican Convention would be in chaos, with all Republican Members all morning at the assassination of Donald Trump, which would make it even harder to concentrate of who to select to replace Donald Trump as the Republican USA President Nominee.
6. Thus it was perfect timing and a perfect place to attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. The choice of Donald Trump's rally speech was a perfect place for enemies of Donald Trump to assassinate Donald Trump using a well trained shooter, with a high powered long range rifle that could easily hit Donald Trump's head up to around a 130 to 150 yard range.
7. For so many different reasons the chances of the current USA President Joe Biden of beating Donald Trump at the November 2024 USA Presidential Elections was becoming extremely low. Thus, this would be a good reason for those who desperately wanted Joe Biden to win the November 2024 USA presidential elections, would have had the maximum reason to to what they could to order, orchestrate and arrange the assassination of former USA t President at time. If they let Donald Trump alive any longer there was very little chance of stopping Donald Trump from winning the November 2024 USA presidential elections. They would have had to act immediately, otherwise they will have left their run too late.
8. In other words .... timing was of thee essence in this matter for Joe Biden and the powerful people, organizations and networks that for so many different reasons are desperate to make sore at any cost, and by any possible method, that Donald Trump does not win the November 2024 USA Presidential Elections, and that Joe Biden wins.
9. Does not mean that Joe Biden himself had any prior knowledge of the well planned assassination of Donald Trump using a perfect person, with the perfect loaner bullied profile, who was registered as a Republican Member, to train up to be able to kill Donald Trump from a 130 to 150 yard range using a high powered long range gun.
10.There as so many powerful people, organizations and networks, which includes people in control of other countries, with billions in resources at their disposal, such as Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, who has over $100 billion dollars at his disposal and also at risk, that would be extremely concerned if Donald Trump won the November 2024 USA Presidential Elections. Donald Trump has made it clear that he and his Team, if Donald Trump won the November 2024 USA Presidential Elections, would do everything possible to immediately end the Russian Ukraine was be political negotiation with the Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is the president of Russia..... and stop the USA funding Ukraine to fight Russia in the Russian Ukraine War.
11. Many security experts have made it clear that it is absolutely incredibly incompetent, for the best Security Service Organization in the world to have allowed a situation were all possible places that someone a shooter could set up within easy kill range, to be able to kill a former USA President Donald Trump, and one of the only two main USA Presidential Candidates. when even ordinary people that attended this Donald Trump Rally were able to see and film this shooter climbing onto the roof with a gun.. yet none of the Security were able to also know was happening in time if neutralize the shooter before he had the opportunity fire a shot at former US President Donald Trump
12. An overall analysis for the background and circumstances of this very lucky escape of Donald Trump from dying from a gun shot wound in his forehead from a high powered long range rifle, it seems clear that those who planned, arranged, allowed and orchestrated the assassination of Donald Trump, if needed, had arranged for this loner shooter. Thomas Matthew Crooks, who had registered as a member of the Republican Party, arranged. and/or encouraged in many possible various ways, for Thomas Matthew Crooks to train up for over 12 months plus as an expert long range shooter marksman, so he would be there ready if needed, to assassinate Donald Trump, when the right opportunity arose, and if it was felt that thew polls for favouring Donald Trump as the most likely winner of the November 2024 USA Presidential Elections.
13. From reading and listening to all mainstream media reports around the world about the investigations of the failed attempted assassination of Donald Trump former US President, it is noted that no spot light is being put into the background and possible political connections of the father of the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, This seems extremely strange. The father of Thomas Matthew Crooks, would be the main person to investigate and shine a spotlight on as to whether he helped encourage his son Thomas Matthew Crooks, for one reason or another to train up as an expert shooter and being involved the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, using a gun purchased and owned by the father of Thomas Matthew Crooks.
14. It is noted that it is rather odd, strange and extremely suspicious that the father of Thomas Matthew Crooks, only bothered to rung the USA Law Enforcement Authorities to report his son and his gun missing, after seeing the news reports of his son's failed attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. This can be compared to a situation where, a person who wants to claim insurance of his car, and to allow his car to be used in a bank robbery getaway, to make some quick money, by arranging a person who would be involved carrying out a planned bank robbery, to steal his car, and to cover up that he is not involved in any way, rings the police to say it is stolen, after he sees a news report that his car was involved in a bank robbery......
15. It is possible that those behind helping to behind ordering, allowing, encouraging, arranging and/or orchestrating an attempted or successful shooting at Donald Trump and his loyal supporters at the Donald Trump Rally, never intended for Donald Trump to be killed ... the purpose of the shooting may have been for other reasons... such as:
(a) to stop the pressure and talk for Joe Biden to step down for running for the November 2024 USA Elections, because it was being claimed by even some of his own loyal supporters, Joe Biden's Health has deteriorated too much in recent times ... since... since the shooting at Donald Trump most of the talk about Joe Biden not being well enough to run for the USA Presidency for another 4 years, is basically quickly disappearing ... with it generally now considered that the November 2024 USA Elections is now confirmed as a Two Horse Race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.. thus if this was the purpose of a near miss assassination of Donald Trump, it has achieved its purpose.
(b) to give Joe Biden a public platform to make great speeches that it is time people in the USA people to deplore violence of any form, and in particular is the political arena.... this has achieved its purpose... Joe Biden was quickly able to make speeches after the shooting at Donald Trump about deploring any form of violence in the USA, with the need for a leader such as Joe Biden, who presents himself as a less radical USA President than Donald Trump.
(c) to try and scare Donald Trump into quitting his bid to be the next President of the USA, and to encourage Donald Trump's Family into encouraging him to withdraw from the USA Presidential Race.. if this was one of the aims of the apparent attempted assassination of Donald Trump, this aim as failed, because the shooting Donald Trump has shown he and his family have all strengthened Donald Trump's resolve to continue to run for the next USA Presidency.
16. There has been no actual full complete proof publicly made available provided that the shots fired at Donald Trump and at his supporters actually came from the named shooter, even though it does seem that that did.
17. There is no actual full complete proof made publicly available that the shooter is actually dead...the public have never been shown a photo of the shooter's dead body and/or a certified death certificate..it is possible the shooter having done what he was told to do, by those that could well have been behind arranging the shotting on Donald Trump, was allowed to live, with a mainstream media announcement that "The Shooter Has is Down and Neutralized"... with a public assumption that the shooter has been killed by a Security Agency Sniper... but no actually dead at all.. the shooter ma have been shott with a bullet that puts him to sleep, but did no kill him .. and then carted away as though he is dead, and given a new Identity ...all this a possible scenario ..
18. Analyzing all the publicly known evidence and back ground circumstances surrounding the shooting of Donald Trump, it seems virtually impossible to believe that the shooter was without any help or assistance of some kind was:
(a) a lone shooter who had no help and assistance in various possible ways,
(b) easily able to end up with the right type of high powered long range rifle to be able to successfully assassinate Donald Trump with such rifle
(c) able to train for over 12 months to become a top shooter marksman cable of successfully assassinating Donald Trump from a 130 yard range ,
(d) s able to quite openly climb onto the top of a very nearby building which was 130 yards away from where Donald Trump would be speaking, which had a good direct line of sight to be able to kill Donald Trump. with a long range rifle,
(e) conveniently in a position where he had a tree was blocking any view of the shooter from one of the only two security Agency Snipers which had set up on the top of building behind where Donald Trump was due to speak.
(f) able to set up his shooter position before and/or about the same time as the only two Security Agency Snipers, who conveniently to the success of the shooter, were fairly late in setting up their sniper shooting positions, who should have been well set up in their sniper positions for a couple of hours of of the time Donald Trump was due t speak, not still setting up at the time Donald Trump started to speak.
(g) able to set up his shooter position on a building which had a good 130 yard line of sight of where Donald Trump was due to speak, which was an obvious building that security agency snipers should have been set up on instead of keeping the top of building which was an obvious important likely place for a shooter to set up to be able to attempt to assassinate Donald Trump.
19. Conclusion
This smells like a setup gone wrong. Thank God!
There can be no doubt that the Shooter's Roof Position was earmarked for him to Assassinate Trump
Looking at the below building map it is blatantly obvious that the roof position the shooter had was the best and shortest line of sight to attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. There can be no possible excuse that can be provided by The US Secret Service Director to the Oversight Committee as to why he had not ordered Secret Service Snipers to be positioned on the building where the shooter was obviously instructed and allowed to set up in the well planned attempted assassination of Donald Trump
Reporting from Freeport, Pa.
Hundreds of people have driven to a community park in Freeport, Pa., to attend the public visitation for Corey Comperatore, the volunteer firefighter and father of two who was killed in the Trump rally shooting. There is a lot of security, and American flags line many of the narrow roads in the park’s entrance.
Eric Gay/Associated Press
Reporting from Freeport, Pa.
An electronic billboard inside the park is flashing several images, including a smiling photo of Comperatore, an image of Trump defiantly raising his fist after the rally shooting, and the Statue of Liberty with flames in the background.
Gary Risch Jr., a longtime friend of Corey Comperatore, the firefighter who was killed in the shooting, said fire companies from as far away as Florida and Texas have said they will be sending trucks for the funeral procession on Friday. Risch, a fellow member of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company, said the crowds will be “overwhelming” in the small town of Freeport, Pa., and surrounding areas that will host the visitation, funeral and procession, calling it “a once-in-a-century situation.”
Who is investigating the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life?
While the F.B.I.’s criminal investigation looks to unearth the shooter’s motives, other inquiries are expected to focus on security failures tied to the attack.
The Secret Service is charged with protecting the nation’s leaders, including former presidents. The agency, part of the Homeland Security Department, also works with local law enforcement to secure events like political rallies and other appearances.
Congress has oversight over the Secret Service, and at least four committees in the House and Senate have signaled that they will begin inquiries, with the first hearings scheduled for next week. President Biden has also announced his intention to start an independent national security investigation.
Within the Homeland Security Department, there will be at least two inquiries: one by the Office of the Inspector General, which is tasked with broad oversight over the agency, and one by the Secret Service itself to examine internal failures.
What are the investigations looking for?
The investigations look at both the internal security failures that enabled an attack on a former president and at external factors, including why the shooter tried to kill Mr. Trump and whether the episode was part of a larger plot.
It had been 52 years since a presidential candidate was killed or hurt in an attack, though as president, Ronald Reagan was seriously injured in 1981, two months after his inauguration, when he was shot outside a hotel in Washington.
Previous shootings of sitting presidents and candidates for the office set off extensive congressional investigations, as well as probes from the Secret Service, state and local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors. A broader conspiracy was found in only one of at least 15 previous attacks: the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
Among the questions facing the Secret Service are why it did not adequately secure the building where the gunman fired from the roof, which was less than 500 feet from the stage where Mr. Trump was speaking. Lawmakers have also pointed fingers at the conduct of agents in the moments after the shooting, including allowing Mr. Trump to linger on the stage and raise a fist before the crowd.
How is the F.B.I. investigation progressing?
The F.B.I. is leading the main criminal investigation into the shooting. Federal officials said they have found no evidence that the shooting was part of a larger plot, but have not ruled out any scenario.
The F.B.I. said Monday that it had gained access to the shooter’s cellphone. But they still do not have a motive for the gunman, identified by law enforcement as Thomas Matthew Crooks. He had no criminal history and no known strong political beliefs. Federal investigators hope that the data on his password-protected phone will shed light on the shooting.
If the shooter acted alone, it is unlikely any criminal charges will be brought, as Mr. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper at the scene.
What is the Homeland Security Department examining?
Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, called the shooting a security failure and said the department would conduct an internal investigation.
“We have a fail-proof responsibility,” he said in an interview on CNN that aired Monday. But Mr. Mayorkas said he remained confident in the Secret Service and its director, Kimberly A. Cheatle.
The department’s inspector general has a mandate to review the Secret Service, making an investigation inevitable. Independent investigations led by Congress or directed by external officials are more likely to shed light on security failures leading up to the attack.
In her statement on Monday, Ms. Cheatle said the Secret Service was working with federal, state and local agencies “to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again.” She said the agency would “participate fully” in the independent review announced by President Biden, as well as cooperating with congressional committees.
Will Congress launch an independent commission to investigate?
At least five congressional committees in the House and Senate have held briefings or called hearings on the shooting. Ms. Cheatle is expected to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, in the first of three hearings on Capitol Hill next week about the assassination attempt.
Ahead of Ms. Cheatle’s testimony, the oversight panel’s leader, Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky, and Representative Mark E. Green, Republican of Tennessee, who leads the House Homeland Security Committee, which has also committed to investigating the shooting, have demanded a trove of documents, recordings and communications from Ms. Cheatle and other top federal law enforcement officials.
They have asked for the security plan for the rally and other documents and communications, including those that took place in the aftermath of the shooting.
Mr. Green has also asked Ms. Cheatle, Mr. Mayorkas and Christopher Wray, the director of the F.B.I., to testify before his panel next week, saying: “The American people want answers.”
The House Judiciary Committee will hear from Mr. Wray next Wednesday, the third hearing related to the attack at the rally.
Some lawmakers have called for an independent commission to lead an investigation, along the lines of the Warren Commission that examined the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Because Congress can demand and review documents and evidence from across federal, state and local agencies, a congressional investigation would probably be best equipped to present a thorough, independent review of the assassination attempt. But its answers may not prove satisfactory to everyone, as was the case with the Warren Commission, whose conclusion that the gunman Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone has been the subject of speculation and debate for decades.
The two other attendees who were shot at the Trump rally remain in serious but stable condition at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, said Bill Toland, a hospital spokesman.
Oversight Committee chair to subpoena Secret Service director for testimony on Trump assassination attempt
Washington — The House Oversight and Accountability Committee's chairman plans to subpoena U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle for testimony on the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, a spokeswoman for the panel said Tuesday.
Cheatle is set to appear before committee members for an oversight hearing on July 22, Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, announced Monday. While the Secret Service also agreed to brief lawmakers on Tuesday, the panel's spokeswoman said, the Department of Homeland Security "took over communications" with the committee and has not confirmed a time for the briefing.
"The Oversight Committee has a long record of bipartisan oversight of the Secret Service and the unprofessionalism we are witnessing from current DHS leadership is unacceptable," the spokeswoman said. "While the Secret Service confirmed Director Cheatle is expected to appear for the committee's hearing on July 22, to head off any attempt by DHS to backtrack on her appearance, the chairman will issue a subpoena for her to attend. Director Cheatle must answer to Congress and the American people about the historic failure that occurred on her watch."
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said in response to the committee that it "responds to congressional requests directly via official channels, and the department will continue to respond appropriately to congressional oversight."
Cheatle's job at the helm of the Secret Service has come under scrutiny following the shooting at Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, during which the former president was injured when a bullet grazed his ear. One spectator, firefighter Corey Comperatore, was killed in the attack and two others, Marine Corps veteran David Dutch and James Copenhaver, were wounded.
The FBI identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the gunman. He was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Questions quickly arose in the wake of the assassination attempt about how Crooks was able to gain access to a rooftop so close to where Trump was speaking to the crowd of supporters. President Biden said Sunday that he ordered an independent review of security at the rally and asked the Secret Service to review security measures for this week's Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Cheatle said Monday that the agency will "participate fully" in the review announced by Mr. Biden and is working with federal, state and local agencies to understand what happened at Trump's rally, how it occurred and how it can be prevented from taking place again.
The Secret Service chief said the agency provided additional security enhancements for Trump's detail in June and implemented changes to his security detail after the shooting to ensure continued protection for the convention and rest of the campaign.
The House and Senate Homeland Security Committees have said they will also be looking into the shooting. The head of the House Homeland Security Panel, Rep. Mark Green, invited Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, FBI Director Chris Wray and Cheatle to testify before lawmakers next Tuesday to examine the circumstances surrounding the attack.
Michael Kaplan contributed to this report
Tree may have blocked sniper team's view of Trump rally gunman, maps show
A U.S. Secret Service sniper stationed in a building behind the former president fired one round, killing the gunman, according to multiple law enforcement officials. Two federal law enforcement officers told CBS News the Secret Service team that ultimately killed the shooter was located on a building behind Trump's left shoulder — with a view that was not blocked by the tree, the CBS analysis shows. That team was initially directed to go another way, so the snipers had to reorient themselves before taking down the gunman, CBS News' Charlie de Mar reported.
The image below shows the scene from the perspective of the building where the gunman was located.
The motive of gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks remains a mystery four days after the shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — during which Trump and two others were injured and a rallygoer was killed. A federal law enforcement bulletin obtained by CBS News identified the gunman as "an apparent lone attacker" and the FBI is investigating whether he was a politically motivated homegrown domestic violent extremist.
Minutes before the assassination attempt, a sniper from a local tactical team took a photo of the gunman and saw him looking through a rangefinder, a local law enforcement officer with direct knowledge of the events told CBS News. Cellphone video taken Saturday shows rally attendees pointing toward the shooter and trying to alert authorities to his presence — a full two minutes before the 20-year-old opened fire.
The U.S. Secret Service is facing mounting questions about the security flaws that allowed the shooter to fire from a rooftop near the rally. Meanwhile, House Republicans are ramping up efforts to investigate the attempted assassination.
President Biden said earlier this week that he is directing an independent review of security and events at the rally to determine what went wrong, while the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general is opening an investigation into the rally's planning.
Eric Trump, the former president's son, told CBS News his father doesn't have stitches after he was shot, but has a "nice flesh wound." He said his father's hearing is fine and that he is "in great spirits."
With reporting from Erielle Delzer, Alex Clark, Rhona Tarrant and Kaia Hubbard
Eric Trump calls failures that led to attempted assassination of his father "infuriating"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eric-trump-interview-assassination-attempt/?intcid=CNI-00-10aaa3a
Former President Donald Trump's second son, Eric Trump, spoke with "CBS Evening News" anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell on Tuesday about his father's recovery after an assassination attempt, security going forward and the future of the campaign.
After his father was officially nominated for a third time to be the Republican presidential candidate on Monday, Eric Trump said the former president was dealing with "the greatest earache in the history of earaches" after a bullet fired by a would-be assassin grazed Trump's ear while he was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
"You see the picture, right? The famous New York Times picture now where you literally see the vapor trail of the bullet coming out of the backside of his ear. It's hard to believe it could've been so much different. I can't even imagine what that would've meant for this country," Eric Trump said.
Eric Trump said the former president's hearing is fine and that he is "in great spirits."
Asked about the recent revelation that U.S. intelligence had also detected an Iranian plot against his father, Eric Trump did not seem surprised.
"We've been hearing this from Iran, including from the leaders directly, for years at this point," he said. Eric Trump cited the assassinations of Qassem Soleimani, the former leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Quds forces, and former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as reasons why Iran would want retribution against the former president.
Eric Trump didn't provide any details about security changes since the assassination attempt, but he did praise the response by Secret Service agents who protected his father on stage Saturday. Still, he wants accountability for the failures that led to the shooting.
"The men and women on that stage in that moment are the greatest people in the world," Eric Trump said. "I know many of them personally and they're phenomenal, phenomenal individuals. And I'm sure they'll get to the bottom of it, but there'd better be real accountability. You can't have ex-presidents taking bullets through the ear."
He said the fact that snipers and rally attendees spotted the shooter as early as 26 minutes before the first shots were fired is "infuriating."
"I grew up competing in the shooting sports. I know that world very, very well, and a rifle shot at 130 yards is like a four-inch punt, right? You don't, you don't miss it if you're competent," he said, adding, "I'm not an overly mushy person ... but, you know, somebody was watching down on him because it could have gone very, very differently."
Eric Trump said it was "hard to believe" the Secret Service would overlook a building as large as the one the gunman used to gain his vantage point.
"A big building that size, 130 yards away from a podium, from an elevated position — you don't need to be a security expert to realize that you might want to have somebody up there."
In the interview, Eric Trump also expressed enthusiasm about his father's vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance, of Ohio. He said he was excited to see Vance take on Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming vice presidential debate, which will be hosted by CBS News.
"I think JD Vance will be putting a bag of popcorn in the microwave and, you know, he is ready to go," Eric Trump said. "Believe me, he's not gonna be backing away from that debate. That much I can tell you."
Republican senators, including a member of the Senate’s leadership, accosted the director of the Secret Service in a suite at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, demanding that she resign or provide a full explanation for the security lapses that led to the near-miss assassination attempt against former President Donald J. Trump.
Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming, the third-ranking Senate Republican, and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee aggressively confronted the agency’s director, Kimberly A. Cheatle, at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. A staff member for one of the senators videotaped the confrontation and sent it to a reporter.
The video, which Ms. Blackburn also posted on X, shows Mr. Barrasso berating Ms. Cheatle over why Mr. Trump was allowed to go onstage for his Saturday evening rally in Butler, Pa., when authorities had already identified as suspicious a man who turned out to be the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks.
“You put him within less than an inch of his life,” Mr. Barrasso said to Ms. Cheatle, almost yelling. “So resignation or full explanation.”
Ms. Cheatle declined to answer their questions and instead walked out of the suite. Mr. Barrasso and Ms. Blackburn followed her down a corridor inside the arena and up a flight of stairs, continuing to yell questions at her and telling her she owed them answers.
Ms. Cheatle is in Milwaukee as the senior security official at the event. The Republican National Convention is a “national special security event,” the highest threat profile given by the federal government, because of its size and scope. Both Mr. Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, are under Secret Service protection.
In a joint interview after the encounter, Mr. Barrasso and Ms. Blackburn said they had been on a briefing call with Ms. Cheatle and the F.B.I. director, Christopher Wray, earlier on Wednesday. The senators complained that they had been waiting in the queue for questions when the call ended and said the briefing had been inadequate.
“We were trying to get to the root of what had happened, how the shooter was on the roof by himself and able to get off the shots,” Mr. Barrasso said. He dismissed the briefing as a “cover-your-ass call.”
Both senators said that when they heard that Ms. Cheatle was in the arena, they decided to confront her. Mr. Barrasso said that they were joined by Senators James Lankford of Oklahoma and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota.
Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service, did not directly respond to questions about the incident. But he issued a statement saying that “continuity of operations is paramount during a critical incident” and that Ms. Cheatle “has no intentions to step down.”
“She deeply respects members of Congress,” Mr. Guglielmi continued, “and is fiercely committed to transparency in leading the Secret Service through the internal investigation and strengthening the agency through lessons learned in these important internal and external reviews.”
Interviewed inside the convention arena, Mr. Barrasso said that he and Ms. Blackburn only gave up their pursuit of Ms. Cheatle after she fled into a restroom. “She ran up a flight of steps, and we were up with her,” he said. “And it looked like she then went into a ladies’ room and her own security closed the door and blocked the door.”
David A. Fahrenthold, Glenn Thrush, Campbell Robertson, Adam Goldman and
David A. Fahrenthold, Glenn Thrush and Adam Goldman reported from Washington. Campbell Robertson reported from Butler, Pa. Aric Toler reported from Kansas City, Mo
How did the gunman get so close to Trump?
Former President Donald J. Trump was allowed to take the stage for his speech despite reports of a suspicious person in the vicinity.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
About an hour before a gunman let loose a volley of bullets that nearly assassinated a former president, the law enforcement contingent in Butler, Pa., was on the verge of a great policing success.
Among the thousands of people streaming in to cheer former President Donald J. Trump at a campaign rally on Saturday, local officers spotted one skinny young man acting oddly and notified other law enforcement. The Secret Service, too, was informed, through radio communication. The suspicious man did not appear to have a weapon.
Remarkably, law enforcement had found the right man — Thomas Matthew Crooks, a would-be assassin, though officers did not know that at the time. Then they lost track of him.
Twenty minutes before violence erupted, a sniper, from a distance, spotted Mr. Crooks again and took his picture.
As time slipped away, at least two local officers were pulled from traffic detail to help search for the man. But the Secret Service, the agency charged with protecting Mr. Trump, did not stop him from taking the stage. Eight minutes after Mr. Trump started to speak, Mr. Crooks fired off bullets that left the Republican presidential nominee bloodied and a rally visitor dead.
Secret Service snipers surveilling the surrounding area before Mr. Trump began to speak.Credit...Eric Lee/The New York Times
The call to let the rally go ahead while law enforcement looked for a potentially dangerous person is one of many Secret Service decisions now being called into question. The agency is also under scrutiny for allowing a building within a rifle’s range to be excluded from its secure perimeter, creating a blind spot close to the former president that the gunman exploited.
“I am appalled to learn that the Secret Service knew about a threat prior to President Trump walking onstage,” Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, posted Wednesday on X, after a private briefing with the Secret Service and the F.B.I.
Multiple investigations into the lapses are underway, including one announced by President Biden Sunday. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas called the shooting, which killed one rally visitor and hospitalized two others, a security failure, though he has said Secret Service Director Kimberly A. Cheatle still has his support.
Ms. Cheatle in an interview with ABC News said she takes full responsibility.
Even as investigators continue to examine what happened, it is already clear that there were multiple missed opportunities to stop Mr. Crooks before the situation turned deadly. This account is based on video footage from the rally and statements from numerous federal officials, local law enforcement officers in Butler and members of Congress who were briefed by the F.B.I. and the Secret Service.
On July 8, an advance team walked the site, the Butler Farm Show grounds, to assess a security threat. Agents worked with local law enforcement and explained what the Secret Service would handle and what law enforcement would be expected to do. Crucially, the Secret Service decided that a group of warehouses to the north of the stage would be excluded from the security zone, despite being only about 450 feet from Mr. Trump’s podium. That was within a rifle’s range.
That meant the warehouses were assigned to local law enforcement to secure. The Secret Service and the local police had treated the complex of warehouses just north of the rally site as an observation post. It was considered a place from which to watch Mr. Trump’s crowd — not a place that needed to be watched, itself.
But that created a blind spot, outside the security perimeter but well within rifle range of Mr. Trump. It was exploited by a gunman with no military training and little subtlety, who showed up early and acted oddly enough that police photographed him and distributed his picture, though with no weapon in view.
“I don’t know whose responsibility that building was,” Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said. “But somebody should have been there.”
It was also unclear how long in advance Mr. Crooks had prepared. Mr. Trump announced his rally in Butler on July 3.
But in the aftermath, when the F.B.I. was able to finally access Mr. Crooks’s cellphones and other electronic devices, agents could see that he had searched for images of Mr. Trump as well as President Biden, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and even F.B.I. Director Christopher A. Wray.
Mr. Crooks also typed in “major depressive disorder” and searched for dates and places for appearances for both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump.
One of Mr. Trump’s planned appearances happened to be about 50 miles from Mr. Crooks’s house in Bethel Park, Pa.
On Friday, July 12, the day before the attempted assassination, Mr. Crooks went to a shooting range, according to an investigative summary prepared by the F.B.I. The next morning, he bought a ladder at a Home Depot and then later that day he purchased 50 rounds of ammunition from a gun shop near his home, according to the F.B.I. document and federal law enforcement officials.
During Mr. Trump’s speech, the attention of the security teams around him pivoted to the area to the north, from where the shots would eventually come. The gunman was on a warehouse roof, but it is unclear if the Secret Service snipers could see him. Credit...Eric Lee/The New York Times
In his car, a Hyundai Sonata, Mr. Crooks brought an AR-15 style rifle, bought by his father more than a decade earlier. And he brought two homemade bombs, in which a potentially explosive mixture of fertilizer and fuel was packed inside empty ammunition cans that were roughly the size of a toolbox.
The bombs were fitted with a remote-control receiver — the type typically used to set off fireworks displays remotely — according to another federal government report seen by The Times. The report said the bombs appeared designed to be set off by a remote control. He brought that, too.
Mr. Trump’s rally in Butler was supposed to start at 5 p.m., though Mr. Trump did not go onstage for another hour after that. Video obtained by Pittsburgh’s WTAE-TV appears to show that Mr. Crooks was there by at least 5:06 p.m.
The video suggests that Mr. Crooks walked around in front of the warehouse building he would eventually use as a sniper’s perch. He appeared unarmed and unhurried, looking toward the rally site with a hand in his pocket.
The officer took a photo of him and circulated it around officers at the rally. The official said that local officers tried to follow the suspicious man, but lost track.
It was about 20 minutes before the shooting.
At some point, Mr. Crooks climbed onto the roof of a warehouse, building No. 6 of a complex of interconnected corrugated-metal buildings used by an equipment company, AGR International.
The location had obvious advantages to a would-be sniper: a clear, elevated line of sight toward the stage where Mr. Trump would stand. Ms. Cheatle said no officers were stationed on the roof itself because of safety concerns arising from the roof’s slope.
The aftermath of the shooting last week. Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
There were conflicting accounts of how Mr. Crooks got up to the roof. A Secret Service spokesman said Wednesday that he had climbed up to the roof on his own, perhaps by using an air-conditioner. Federal investigators believe that he did not use a ladder even though Mr. Crooks had bought one that morning.
At 6:03 p.m. Mr. Trump appeared, waving to the cheering crowd. Six minutes later, with Trump now energetically speaking onstage, witnesses noticed Mr. Crooks crawling into position on the roof. They alerted local officers, who patrolled the area outside the Secret Service’s perimeter.
It was two minutes before the shooting.
Onstage, Mr. Trump continued speaking, seemingly unaware.
But around him, the Secret Service contingent frantically began to respond, shifting its focus from scanning the crowd to scanning the area north of the security perimeter. The sprawling warehouse complex just to the north — the blind spot — was now everyone’s focus.
On a barn directly behind Mr. Trump, a Secret Service counter-sniper team quickly clambered from one side of the peaked roofs to the other. Now, they pointed their rifles at the warehouse about 450 feet to Mr. Trump’s right.
Mr. Crooks was on the warehouse roof, but it is unclear if the Secret Service counter-snipers could see him. A New York Times visual analysis showed that the view for these snipers was likely blocked by the gentle peak of the warehouse’s roof.
Mr. Crooks was still hidden, low-crawling up the other side.
On the ground, officers from the small Butler Township Police Department had been assigned to direct traffic near the warehouse. According to a social media post from Butler Township Commissioner Edward Natali, at least two of the officers left their traffic posts to help look for the suspicious person.
Two officers went to the warehouse, and one officer boosted the other up, so that his head was above the roofline. He and Mr. Crooks saw each other. Mr. Crooks “turned his firearm,” Mr. Natali wrote, but the officer could not fire back: He was holding onto the roof with both hands.
The officer fell backward and was injured, Mr. Natali wrote.
Mr. Crooks reached the peak of the warehouse roof, high enough to see over the top. A witness on the ground yelled: “He’s on the roof! He’s got a gun!”
Then time was up. Mr. Crooks fired his rifle eight times, according to a Times analysis of audio from the scene. His first shot appeared to graze Mr. Trump, bloodying his right ear. Two other rallygoers were injured, and a 50-year-old retired firefighter, Corey Comperatore, was killed.
Afterward, a Secret Service sniper on the south barn killed him with one shot. A local police officer in another part of the area also fired at him, but it was unclear if his bullet struck Mr. Crooks, according to the Butler County district attorney.
When the police reached Mr. Crooks’s body on the roof, he had no identification on him. Officers traced the serial number on his rifle to his father. In his pocket, he carried a remote control to the bombs in his car.
It was not clear if he had tried to use it, or if the bombs were made well enough to explode.
Eduardo Medina and Jeanna Smialek contributed reporting from Butler, Pa., Chelsia Rose Marcius from Bethel Park, Pa., Mark Walker and John Ismay from Washington, and William K. Rashbaum from New York.
The gunman searched for information on both Trump and Biden, the F.B.I. tells lawmakers.
The F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, last year. On a conference call with members of Congress on Wednesday, he went out of his way to caution that the investigation was still in its early stages.Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
F.B.I. officials told members of Congress on Wednesday that the gunman who tried to kill former President Donald J. Trump used his cellphone and other devices to search for images of Mr. Trump and President Biden, along with an array of public figures.
The 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa., also looked up dates of Mr. Trump’s appearances and the Democratic National Convention, according to people on two conference calls held to answer lawmakers’ questions.
And, at least once, his browsing history signaled concerns about his own mental state.
The disclosures, made during private briefings to lawmakers by the F.B.I. and the head of the embattled Secret Service, offered the most complete portrait so far of a would-be assassin with no criminal history, or even clearly discernible political beliefs, who came close to killing Mr. Trump. Still, no clear motive for the attack has emerged.
The official assessment aligned with recollections of people who knew him. Several former classmates have said they never heard the gunman express any particular political ideology. But Vincent Taormina, a former classmate who said he attended middle school and high school with the gunman, said in an interview that Mr. Crooks showed a general disdain for politicians in both parties.
He recalled one instance when the two were in seventh grade. During a classroom political debate, Mr. Taormina voiced his support for Mr. Trump. Mr. Crooks seemed incredulous.
“He says, ‘Aren’t you Hispanic? And you like Trump?’” Mr. Taormina said. “He said, ‘That’s a little stupid.’”
Mr. Taormina brushed off the encounter, and had few other interactions with Mr. Crooks. But he disputed other classmates’ accounts that the gunman had been bullied or had been a loner, saying that he was intelligent and had his own small group of friends.
“I did not know him personally or as a friend, but he was not bullied, he was not a recluse,” Mr. Taormina said.
The F.B.I. has been scouring Mr. Crooks’s possessions since the shooting on Saturday — including two phones and at least one laptop — for clues about his motive. So far, they have found no indication that Mr. Crooks, who was a registered Republican, had strong partisan political views one way or another, bureau officials told lawmakers.
Nor have they uncovered any evidence of co-conspirators or connections to foreign actors, two top bureau officials said during the tense calls in which members of the House and Senate demanded answers about a nearly catastrophic failure to safeguard Mr. Trump.
The investigation is proving to be tricky. That was illustrated when officials on one of the calls said they were investigating the possibility that an account bearing Mr. Crooks’s name on the gaming platform Steam had previewed the attack, with a post saying he would make his “premiere” on July 13, the day of the shooting. But upon further examination, that now seems to have been a fake, according to law enforcement officials.
A more substantial development concerned the shooter’s state of mind. The officials told lawmakers that there was some indication that the gunman, who led a quiet life and worked at a nursing home near his house, might have been struggling with depression.
Officials singled out some of the searches on one of his cellphones, saying that he had looked up “major depressive disorder,” according to a person on the calls and another briefed on its contents.
Mr. Crooks seems to have been on good terms with his parents, who are both counselors, but they were not closely involved in the day-to-day details of his life, officials said.
Over the last several months, the gunman received multiple packages, including several that were marked “hazardous material,” according to a federal law enforcement memo obtained by The New York Times. Federal officials reviewed his shipping history after they discovered three explosive devices connected to him, the memo said. One device was found in his home, and two others were found in his car parked near the rally.
Investigators discovered two improvised explosive devices in the would-be assassin’s car that used a radio-controlled initiation system intended for commercial fireworks demonstrations.
While the briefing on Wednesday filled in some blanks, it left many questions unanswered. Federal law enforcement officials are puzzled and exasperated by the lack of evidence on the gunman’s two phones, one found by his body on the roof of a warehouse outside the security perimeter of the rally, the other discovered during a search of his house.
F.B.I. officials, speaking on the calls, suggested that his search history indicated he was broadly interested in powerful and famous people, without any obvious ideological or partisan pattern.
Among the other prominent figures the gunman searched for using one of his phones, besides Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, were the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray; Attorney General Merrick B. Garland; and a member of the British royal family, according to two officials with knowledge of the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter publicly.
Mr. Wray, who was also on the calls, went out of his way to caution that the investigation was still in its early stages.
But the absence of “any political or ideological information” at the house Mr. Crooks shared with his mother and father was “notable” because most people who carry out acts of political violence tend to leave a discernible trail of political views, a top bureau official told lawmakers.
Kimberly A. Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, admitted that her agency made serious “mistakes” during one of the calls, and provided new information about Mr. Crooks’s movements during the shooting. She is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Monday.
During the briefing with senators, officials ran through a timeline of events, noting that law enforcement officers had identified the gunman as suspicious about an hour before the shooting but then lost track of him, according to two people familiar with the contents of the briefing.
About 20 minutes before the shooting, a sniper spotted him again, the people said.
Some senators left their call angry with the Secret Service after learning that officers did not intervene before he opened fire.
“He had a rangefinder and a backpack. The Secret Service lost sight of him. No one has taken responsibility,” Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, said in a statement, adding, “The head of the Secret Service needs to go.”
Senator Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, called on federal law enforcement agencies to publicly release the same details shared with lawmakers.
“The Biden administration has got to start being open with Americans about what happened, who is being held accountable and how we make sure it never happens again,” he said.
Chelsia Rose Marcius contributed reporting from Butler, Pa., and Adam Goldman from Washington.
Here’s a look at the multiple investigations into the shooting.
An aerial view of the Butler Farm Show grounds as the wind blows the flag over the stage.Credit...Kristian Thacker for The New York Times
As the F.B.I. investigates the attempt to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump at a campaign rally, Congress and the Homeland Security Department have begun their own inquiries into broader security failures, including by the Secret Service, that allowed the attack to take place.
The overlapping investigations, some just announced and others fully underway, aim to understand how a 20-year-old gunman was able to fire at Mr. Trump at the rally in western Pennsylvania, injuring the former president, killing an audience member and gravely wounding two others.
Here’s what to know about the inquiries:
Who is investigating the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life?
While the F.B.I.’s criminal investigation looks to unearth the shooter’s motives, other inquiries are expected to focus on security failures tied to the attack.
The Secret Service is charged with protecting the nation’s leaders, including former presidents. The agency, part of the Homeland Security Department, also works with local law enforcement to secure events like political rallies and other appearances.
Congress has oversight over the Secret Service, and at least four committees in the House and Senate have signaled that they will begin inquiries, with the first hearings scheduled for next week. President Biden has also announced his intention to start an independent national security investigation.
Within the Homeland Security Department, there will be at least two inquiries: one by the Office of the Inspector General, which is tasked with broad oversight over the agency, and one by the Secret Service itself to examine internal failures.
What are the investigations looking for?
The investigations look at both the internal security failures that enabled an attack on a former president and at external factors, including why the shooter tried to kill Mr. Trump and whether the episode was part of a larger plot.
It had been 52 years since a presidential candidate was killed or hurt in an attack, though as president, Ronald Reagan was seriously injured in 1981, two months after his inauguration, when he was shot outside a hotel in Washington.
Previous shootings of sitting presidents and candidates for the office set off extensive congressional investigations, as well as probes from the Secret Service, state and local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors. A broader conspiracy was found in only one of at least 15 previous attacks: the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
Among the questions facing the Secret Service are why it did not adequately secure the building where the gunman fired from the roof, which was less than 500 feet from the stage where Mr. Trump was speaking. Lawmakers have also pointed fingers at the conduct of agents in the moments after the shooting, including allowing Mr. Trump to linger on the stage and raise a fist before the crowd.
How is the F.B.I. investigation progressing?
The F.B.I. is leading the main criminal investigation into the shooting. Federal officials said they have found no evidence that the shooting was part of a larger plot, but have not ruled out any scenario.
The F.B.I. said Monday that it had gained access to the shooter’s cellphone. But they still do not have a motive for the gunman, identified by law enforcement as Thomas Matthew Crooks. He had no criminal history and no known strong political beliefs. Federal investigators hope that the data on his password-protected phone will shed light on the shooting.
If the shooter acted alone, it is unlikely any criminal charges will be brought, as Mr. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper at the scene.
What is the Homeland Security Department examining?
Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, called the shooting a security failure and said the department would conduct an internal investigation.
“We have a fail-proof responsibility,” he said in an interview on CNN that aired Monday. But Mr. Mayorkas said he remained confident in the Secret Service and its director, Kimberly A. Cheatle.
The department’s inspector general has a mandate to review the Secret Service, making an investigation inevitable. Independent investigations led by Congress or directed by external officials are more likely to shed light on security failures leading up to the attack.
In her statement on Monday, Ms. Cheatle said the Secret Service was working with federal, state and local agencies “to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again.” She said the agency would “participate fully” in the independent review announced by President Biden, as well as cooperating with congressional committees.
Will Congress launch an independent commission to investigate?
At least five congressional committees in the House and Senate have held briefings or called hearings on the shooting. Ms. Cheatle is expected to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, in the first of three hearings on Capitol Hill next week about the assassination attempt.
Ahead of Ms. Cheatle’s testimony, the oversight panel’s leader, Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky, and Representative Mark E. Green, Republican of Tennessee, who leads the House Homeland Security Committee, which has also committed to investigating the shooting, have demanded a trove of documents, recordings and communications from Ms. Cheatle and other top federal law enforcement officials.
They have asked for the security plan for the rally and other documents and communications, including those that took place in the aftermath of the shooting.
Mr. Green has also asked Ms. Cheatle, Mr. Mayorkas and Christopher Wray, the director of the F.B.I., to testify before his panel next week, saying: “The American people want answers.”
The House Judiciary Committee will hear from Mr. Wray next Wednesday, the third hearing related to the attack at the rally.
Some lawmakers have called for an independent commission to lead an investigation, along the lines of the Warren Commission that examined the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Because Congress can demand and review documents and evidence from across federal, state and local agencies, a congressional investigation would probably be best equipped to present a thorough, independent review of the assassination attempt. But its answers may not prove satisfactory to everyone, as was the case with the Warren Commission, whose conclusion that the gunman Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone has been the subject of speculation and debate for decades.
Our Coverage of the Trump Rally Shooting
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The Investigation: F.B.I. officials told Congress that the 20-year-old gunman who tried to kill Donald Trump used his cellphone and other devices to search for images of Trump and President Biden.
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Security Blind Spots: Even as investigators continue to examine what happened at the Trump rally, it is already clear that there were multiple missed opportunities to stop the gunman before the situation turned deadly.
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The Gunman: In interviews, former classmates of the suspect described him as intelligent but solitary, someone who tried to avoid teasing by fellow students.
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Secret Service Director: Kimberly Cheatle returned in 2022 to lead the agency she had served for nearly 30 years. Now, the assassination attempt on Trump has thrown her tenure into uncertainty.
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Fears of What’s Next: Among voters, there is growing anxiety that America’s political divide is nearly beyond repair, and the shooting only made things worse.
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Gunman’s Phone Had Details About Both Trump and Biden, F.B.I. Officials Say
The disclosure, during private briefings to lawmakers in the House and Senate, offered more details from the early stages of the investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump.
The F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, last year. On a conference call with members of Congress on Wednesday, he went out of his way to caution that the investigation was still in its early stages.Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
Glenn Thrush, Jack Healy and
Glenn Thrush and Luke Broadwater reported from Washington.
F.B.I. officials told members of Congress on Wednesday that the gunman who tried to kill former President Donald J. Trump used his cellphone and other devices to search for images of Mr. Trump and President Biden, along with an array of public figures.
The 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa., also looked up dates of Mr. Trump’s appearances and the Democratic National Convention, according to people on two conference calls held to answer lawmakers’ questions.
And, at least once, his browsing history signaled concerns about his own mental state.
The disclosures, made during private briefings to lawmakers by the F.B.I. and the head of the embattled Secret Service, offered the most complete portrait so far of a would-be assassin with no criminal history, or even clearly discernible political beliefs, who came close to killing Mr. Trump. Still, no clear motive for the attack has emerged.
The official assessment aligned with recollections of people who knew him. Several former classmates have said they never heard the gunman express any particular political ideology. But Vincent Taormina, a former classmate who said he attended middle school and high school with the gunman, said in an interview that Mr. Crooks showed a general disdain for politicians in both parties.
He recalled one instance when the two were in seventh grade. During a classroom political debate, Mr. Taormina voiced his support for Mr. Trump. Mr. Crooks seemed incredulous.
“He says, ‘Aren’t you Hispanic? And you like Trump?’” Mr. Taormina said. “He said, ‘That’s a little stupid.’”
Mr. Taormina brushed off the encounter, and had few other interactions with Mr. Crooks. But he disputed other classmates’ accounts that the gunman had been bullied or had been a loner, saying that he was intelligent and had his own small group of friends.
“I did not know him personally or as a friend, but he was not bullied, he was not a recluse,” Mr. Taormina said.
The F.B.I. has been scouring Mr. Crooks’s possessions since the shooting on Saturday — including two phones and at least one laptop — for clues about his motive. So far, they have found no indication that Mr. Crooks, who was a registered Republican, had strong partisan political views one way or another, bureau officials told lawmakers.
Nor have they uncovered any evidence of co-conspirators or connections to foreign actors, two top bureau officials said during the tense calls in which members of the House and Senate demanded answers about a nearly catastrophic failure to safeguard Mr. Trump.
The investigation is proving to be tricky. That was illustrated when officials on one of the calls said they were investigating the possibility that an account bearing Mr. Crooks’s name on the gaming platform Steam had previewed the attack, with a post saying he would make his “premiere” on July 13, the day of the shooting. But upon further examination, that now seems to have been a fake, according to law enforcement officials.
A more substantial development concerned the shooter’s state of mind. The officials told lawmakers that there was some indication that the gunman, who led a quiet life and worked at a nursing home near his house, might have been struggling with depression.
Officials singled out some of the searches on one of his cellphones, saying that he had looked up “major depressive disorder,” according to a person on the calls and another briefed on its contents.
Our politics reporters. Times journalists are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. That includes participating in rallies and donating money to a candidate or cause.
Mr. Crooks seems to have been on good terms with his parents, who are both counselors, but they were not closely involved in the day-to-day details of his life, officials said.
Over the last several months, the gunman received multiple packages, including several that were marked “hazardous material,” according to a federal law enforcement memo obtained by The New York Times. Federal officials reviewed his shipping history after they discovered three explosive devices connected to him, the memo said. One device was found in his home, and two others were found in his car parked near the rally.
Investigators discovered two improvised explosive devices in the would-be assassin’s car that used a radio-controlled initiation system intended for commercial fireworks demonstrations.
While the briefing on Wednesday filled in some blanks, it left many questions unanswered. Federal law enforcement officials are puzzled and exasperated by the lack of evidence on the gunman’s two phones, one found by his body on the roof of a warehouse outside the security perimeter of the rally, the other discovered during a search of his house.
F.B.I. officials, speaking on the calls, suggested that his search history indicated he was broadly interested in powerful and famous people, without any obvious ideological or partisan pattern.
Among the other prominent figures the gunman searched for using one of his phones, besides Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, were the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray; Attorney General Merrick B. Garland; and a member of the British royal family, according to two officials with knowledge of the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter publicly.
Mr. Wray, who was also on the calls, went out of his way to caution that the investigation was still in its early stages.
But the absence of “any political or ideological information” at the house Mr. Crooks shared with his mother and father was “notable” because most people who carry out acts of political violence tend to leave a discernible trail of political views, a top bureau official told lawmakers.
Kimberly A. Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, admitted that her agency made serious “mistakes” during one of the calls, and provided new information about Mr. Crooks’s movements during the shooting. She is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Monday.
During the briefing with senators, officials ran through a timeline of events, noting that law enforcement officers had identified the gunman as suspicious about an hour before the shooting but then lost track of him, according to two people familiar with the contents of the briefing.
About 20 minutes before the shooting, a sniper spotted him again, the people said.
Some senators left their call angry with the Secret Service after learning that officers did not intervene before he opened fire
“He had a rangefinder and a backpack. The Secret Service lost sight of him. No one has taken responsibility,” Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, said in a statement, adding, “The head of the Secret Service needs to go.”
Senator Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, called on federal law enforcement agencies to publicly release the same details shared with lawmakers.
“The Biden administration has got to start being open with Americans about what happened, who is being held accountable and how we make sure it never happens again,” he said.
Chelsia Rose Marcius contributed reporting from Butler, Pa., and Adam Goldman from Washington.
Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons. More about Glenn Thrush
Jack Healy is a Phoenix-based national correspondent who focuses on the fast-changing politics and climate of the Southwest. He has worked in Iraq and Afghanistan and is a graduate of the University of Missouri’s journalism school. More about Jack Healy
Luke Broadwater covers Congress with a focus on congressional investigations. More about Luke Broadwater
Butler County sheriff says Secret Service director applauded work of local law enforcement at Trump rally shooting
https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/secret-service-director-talks-trump-rally-shooting/
BUTLER TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) — Investigators are still combing through the Butler County Farm Show grounds three days after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
They are trying to understand how 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks got on the roof of the AGR building and got a clear line of fire at the former president.
Secret Service director reaches out to local law enforcement
KDKA-TV learned that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle called Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe and applauded their efforts at Saturday's rally.
"I was told the director of the Secret Service has taken responsibility by I believe the statement that the buck stops here with her," Slupe said. "I applauded that statement and reflected on the sheriff's office and myself as a leader. And if something happened under my watch, I would take responsibility as well."
Cheatle also told ABC News a decision was made not to put police on the roof used by the shooter.
"That building in particular has a sloped roof, at its highest point. And so, there's a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn't want to put somebody up on a sloped roof. And so, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside."
It's still unclear who made that decision.
Sources told KDKA-TV that one or two members of a local SWAT team were assigned to the AGR complex near the rally. They were stationed inside the building and looking out the windows with no access to the roof, sources added.
Who was responsible for securing the area?
KDKA-TV has asked who was responsible for that area and what instructions they got from the Secret Service, but no one will comment.
Sources said what may have added to communication issues is that there were two command posts: one for the Secret Service and state police and one for local authorities.
"Do you think there were enough Secret Service for this detail at the Trump rally?" KDKA-TV's Jennifer Borrasso asked.
"There was enough law enforcement at the Trump rally," Slupe said.
Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement that 30 to 40 troopers were at the rally to help with security inside the perimeter. State police said they had no responsibility for security anywhere on AGR's property.
Pennsylvania
with Trump Rally Supports
Analysis
Open campaign events, such as Saturday's, are tough to secure against all threats, but insiders said they were surprised that the gunman was able to scale a roof overlooking the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Donald Trump was speaking.
A "fundamental security failure" allowed a gunman to get close enough to Donald Trump to shoot him, according to an analysis of the scene of the assassination attempt.
Sky News analysis of the area where the former president was shot from as he gave a speech to supporters in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, suggests a large tree blocked the view between the gunman and the closest armed protection unit.
What Trump said after being shot
He told NBC, Sky's US partner: "They were behind the curve, because they should have had those places covered ahead of time."
His comments come after the BBC interviewed a man who described himself as an eyewitness, who said he saw a man armed with a rifle crawling up a roof near the event.
The person, who the BBC did not name, said he and other people he was with started trying to alert security, pointing at the man.
The Nato 5.56 cartridge fires the bullet at a velocity of 3,250 feet per second — almost three times the speed of sound (1,125 feet per second). A bullet moving at this speed induces air pressure changes around the bullet that produce a contrail similar to those that form on the low pressure side of aircraft wings.
What could possibly explain the catastrophic failure to secure the perimeter around the stage? It’s hard for me to imagine a legitimate explanation for such a lapse of such elementary security procedures.
https://usaweekly.com.au/trump-shooting-analysishttps://usaweekly.com.au/trump-shooting-analysis
What saved Donald Trump's Life from a well planned authorised assassination from the top of the food chain in control of the USA Security Operatives to allow a shooter to find a convenient spot to shoot Donald Trump from was that Donald Trump moved his head to look at his other tele-monitor... A top security analyist who spoke t the USAWEEKLY.COM.AU said that Trump must have been protected by God to allow him to live to become the next USA President ... by having two tele-monitors he moved his head to and from .. and moved his heard just at the right time when the assassins bullet would have normally hit his head in the middle of Donald Trump's forehead
What Trump said after being shot
He told NBC, Sky's US partner: "They were behind the curve, because they should have had those places covered ahead of time." His comments come after the BBC interviewed a man who described himself as an eyewitness, who said he saw a man armed with a rifle crawling up a roof near the event. The person, who the BBC did not name, said he and other people he was with started trying to alert security, pointing at the man.
Thomas Matthew Crooks in the 2022 Bethel Park High School Commencement. Photo: The Bethel Park School District/AP.
Butler County district attorney Richard Goldinger told AP on Sunday that Crooks had been previously unknown to investigators in his county and had not been on their radar
Thomas Matthew Crooks was a member of a shooting club and train for around 12 months to be able to be a good enough shooter to be able at hit Donald Trump's forehead form a 130 yard range. It makes no difference whether Thomas Matthew Crooks was quietly working under instructions of others or was mind controlled by others to train and carry out an assassination of Donald Trump, which is very likely the case, ... the real issue here is that there would be thousands of people who would want to assassinate Donald Trump for all sorts of reasons. .... all those running the security Agencies that are meant to be protecting the life and well being of Donald Trump being a former president of the USA... would be well aware of this fact.. so as Colonel Leroy Fletcher Prouty says in his book The Secret Team, the person or persons or organisations that are the cause of an assassination attempt of a high profile person, who in normal circumstances always has top security at public appearances, that are responsible for inefficient low level security on a particular day, are responsible and are the cause of such assassination attempt....
https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/
As I have observed in previous columns, our era in the United States is frequently beset with incidents characterized by a catastrophic loss of competence. Decades of procedural knowledge seem to vanish from one day to the next, leaving sensible people wondering how it could possibly happen.
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump this evening at the the Butler Farm Show Grounds is a perfect example of this bizarre phenomenon. The shooter climbed onto the roof—purportedly with an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle —120 meters from Trump on the stage. From this vantage point, he had a clear line of sight for a shot that would have been easy for even a middling marksman. The following aerial photograph shows the shooter’s position relative to Trumps.
As anyone who understands the rudiments of security knows, the FIRST thing you do is secure all rooftops within sniper range. Note in the following video that a counter sniper (with the word POLICE embroidered on the back of his vest) on the roof behind Trump is scoping the would-be assassin’s position.
He appears to see the would-be assassin and start to engage (while flinching) right before the would-be assassin’s shots can be heard. Clearly the counter snipers knew that the rooftop presented a high risk position or they wouldn’t have been scoping it.
Why wasn’t this building—AGR International Inc., a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm show ground—secured before Trump began speaking? It seems to me that this building would be the first thing a security detail would secure. The green pin on the roof to the east of Trump’s position marks where the counter snipers are posted. Again, why didn’t they just secure the building onto which the shooter climbed? This makes no sense.
Here Is The Venue
The gunman apparently fired right as Trump looked to the right, towards the gunman. The grazing shot to Trump’s right ear was just a centimeter to the left (from the gunman’s POV) of a fatal head shot. I emphasize that the gunman was positioned at very close range. In the following video, I hit a small condiment package at 75 yards on the second shot with the same kind of rifle with open sights.
Note what appears to be a vapor trail behind the bullet.
The Nato 5.56 cartridge fires the bullet at a velocity of 3,250 feet per second — almost three times the speed of sound (1,125 feet per second). A bullet moving at this speed induces air pressure changes around the bullet that produce a contrail similar to those that form on the low pressure side of aircraft wings.
What could possibly explain the catastrophic failure to secure the perimeter around the stage? It’s hard for me to imagine a legitimate explanation for such a lapse of such elementary security procedures
5, 2001) served as Chief of Special Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President John F. Kennedy.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jun/22/guardianobituaries
L Fletcher Prouty
About the author
It is appropriate that Fletcher Prouty, who has died of organ failure following stomach surgery at the age of 84, will best be remembered as the model for the mysterious Colonel X, played by Donald Sutherland, in Oliver Stone's film JFK.
Prouty, who believed the assassination of President John F Kennedy was a coup d'état perpetrated by elements of the United States military and intelligence communities, was a career military man who spent a decade liaising between the Pentagon and the CIA. After leaving the US Air Force (USAF), he became an outspoken critic of the intelligence establishment, although by the time JFK was filmed, he had been relegated to the fringes along with countless other conspiracy crackpots.
When asked why he did not use Prouty's name in the film, Stone said: "Because the man does not want to be known, he doesn't want to be traced." Yet his identity was common knowledge. It seemed that the shadowy image of the figure Sutherland portrayed, instructing the naive New Orleans attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner), was one Prouty was proud to fit.
As a young man in Massachusetts, his early ambition to become a singer was interrupted by the second world war. He served, first, as an army tank commander, and then as a transport pilot. His CV shows him providing VIP transport for the key allied conferences in Cairo and Tehran, as well as evacuating a Guns of Navarone-style commando team from Turkey. He claimed to have flown in the first overt cold-war mission, rescuing Nazi intelligence officers from the Balkans at the bequest of the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA, in 1944.
In 1955, Prouty was assigned to coordinate operations between the USAF and the CIA, and remained in intelligence duties until retiring in 1964 to join an aircraft company. He later worked in banking and public relations, while writing on intelligence topics and the assassination of Kennedy.
His 1973 book, The Secret Team, was reviewed seriously. In it, Prouty called the CIA, and the cold war, a cover story, which had allowed elements of the military and intelligence community to work on behalf of the interests of a "high cabal" of industrialists and bankers. It found a ready audience in the atmosphere of Watergate and the Pentagon Papers, and, in the light of Iran-Contra and CIA drug-running controversies, many of its revelations have been confirmed.
A mass-market paperback was published by Ballantine in 1974, but the book immediately became hard to find. Prouty believed it was "disappeared"; at any rate, copies remain collectors' items.
Kennedy assassination, characterising the events in Dallas as a way of thwarting the US president's plans to take control of the CIA after the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
General Edward Lansdale was in charge of Operation Mongoose, aimed at overthrowing Fidel Castro. As General Y in the JFK film, he assigns Prouty to a South Pole trip, to remove him from the Pentagon at the time of the assassination. Prouty later claimed that Lansdale was in Dallas - and visible as a passer-by in the famous "tramps" photograph - on the day Kennedy was killed. "He was there like the orchestra leader, coordinating these things," he said.
In 1986, Prouty's book-length manuscript, The Role Of Intelligence In The Cold War, appeared as a series in a magazine called Freedom, published by the church of Scientology. Like other assassination critics, he found an outlet via the Liberty Lobby, a far-right organisation with ties to Holocaust deniers.
Although Prouty himself never espoused such beliefs, the connection enabled critics to dismiss his later writings. He helped them by publishing articles that made easy targets, such as his revelation that, according to President Franklin Roosevelt's son, Kermit, himself an OSS/CIA man, Stalin believed "the Churchill cabal" had poisoned Roosevelt, and his widow, Eleanor, had kept his coffin closed to stop anyone finding out.
Following the release of JFK, Prouty's book, JFK, The CIA, Vietnam, And The Plot To Assassinate John F Kennedy, was published by the small, independent Birch Lane Press. He remained active, via his own website, until his death, and is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and three children.
.
Retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent Jim Cavanaugh said he was surprised the gunman was able to occupy a raised position within rifle range of the rally site.
Mr Cavanaugh said: "Whenever I've been with them, every single high ground is taken by them or the local SWAT police. There's nobody allowed walking on rooftops. They command the high ground."
He said a high-powered rifle like an AR-15 can hit targets 600ft (182m) away and Mr Trump was about 444ft (135m) from the rooftop where the gunman was found dead, NBC News said, based on an analysis of Google Earth images.
Mr Cavanaugh said: "Having been on Secret Service details, it's amazing to me that somebody was on an elevated position that they didn't know about."
But Pennsylvania State Police Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens defended those in charge of security, calling it "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".
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its role, NBC said.
But a spokesman for the service has denied online reports that it refused requests from the Trump campaign for greater security.
Spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement on the X social media platform on Sunday: "There's an untrue assertion that a member of the former president's team requested additional security resources and that those were rebuffed.
"This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo".
FBI special agent Kevin Rojek told reporters law enforcement was not aware there was a man on the rooftop until he started firing, and said it was "surprising" how many shots the gunman managed to fire.
Trump supporters in the front row of the rally heard a series of pops and saw Secret Service agents jump on the stage as Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate in November's presidential election, ducked.
Mr Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site a couple of hours later that a bullet "pierced the upper part of my right ear.
"I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realised then what was happening."
Former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras, who has protected multiple presidents, including Barack Obama and George W Bush, said it is impossible to eliminate every potential threat at a rally.
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After assassination attempt, Trump and Biden seek calm, unity
After assassination attempt, Trump and Biden seek calm, unity
By Tim Reid , Gram Slattery and Helen CosterJuly 15, 2024
Crooks was a registered Republican, according to state voter records, and donated $15 to a Democratic political action committee when he was 17.
- Summary
- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
- Biden orders review of how gunman got so close
- Gunman worked as a dietary aide at a nursing home
- Four-day convention gets under way on Monday
- Trump to name his vice presidential running mate
MILWAUKEE, July 14 (Reuters) - Donald Trump arrived on Sunday in Milwaukee, where he will be formally nominated as the Republican presidential candidate later this week after surviving an assassination attempt that has aggravated an already bitter U.S. political divide.President Joe Biden, a Democrat, ordered a review of how a 20-year-old man with an AR-15-style rifle got close enough to shoot at Trump from a rooftop on Saturday. Trump, as a former president, has lifetime protection by the U.S. Secret Service
.Trump, 78, was holding a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania - a key state in the Nov. 5 election - when shots rang out, hitting his right ear and leaving his face streaked with blood. His campaign said he was doing well.
"That reality is just setting in," Trump told the Washington Examiner on Sunday. "I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?"
One person in the crowd was killed and two others wounded before Secret Service agents fatally shot the suspect.
Both Trump and Biden on Sunday sought calm and unity.
Trump is due to accept his party's formal nomination at the Republican National Convention with a speech on Thursday. He pumped his fist in the air several times as he descended the stairs from his plane after arriving in Milwaukee.
"This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would've been two days ago," Trump told the Washington Examiner.
Biden delivered a televised address from the Oval Office in the White House on Sunday.
"There is no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We can't allow this violence to be normalized," he said. "The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down."
Biden and Trump spoke to each other on Saturday night after the shooting. First Lady Jill Biden also spoke with former First Lady Melania Trump on Sunday afternoon, said a White House official.
Trump and Biden are locked in a close election rematch, according to most opinion polls including by Reuters/Ipsos. The shooting on Saturday whipsawed discussion around the presidential campaign, which had been focused on if Biden, 81, should drop out following a halting June 27 debate performance.The FBI said there were no known threats to the Republican convention - which kicks off on Monday - or anyone attending, while the Secret Service said they do not anticipate any changes to the security plan.The convention will feature televised speeches by rising Republican stars and Trump's choice for a yet-to-be-announced vice presidential running mate, while highlighting the party's stance on such topics as abortion, immigration and the economy.
SUSPECT A NURSING HOME AIDE
The FBI identified Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the suspect and said the shooting was being investigated as an attempted assassination.FBI officials said on Sunday that the shooter acted alone. The agency said it had yet to identify an ideology linked to the suspect or any indications of mental health issues or found any threatening language on the suspect's social media accounts.Item 1 of 13 A pro-Trump supporter holds a portrait of former President Donald Trump during a demonstration in support of former U.S. President Donald Trump who was shot the previous day in an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania, in Huntington Beach, California, U.S. July 14, 2024. REUTERS/Etienne Laurent
]A pro-Trump supporter holds a portrait of former President Donald Trump during a demonstration in support of former U.S. President Donald Trump who was shot the previous day in an assassination...
Crooks was a registered Republican, according to state voter records, and donated $15 to a Democratic political action committee when he was 17. At the time of the shooting he was employed as a dietary aide at a nursing home. The Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center said Crooks "performed his job without concern and his background check was clean."The gun - an AR-style-5.56 caliber rifle - had been legally bought, FBI officials said, adding they believed it had been purchased by the suspect's father. The officials said "a suspicious device" was found in the suspect's vehicle, which was inspected by bomb technicians and rendered safe.The Secret Service denied accusations by some Trump supporters that it had rejected a campaign request for more security, saying that it recently "added protective resources and capabilities to the former President's security detail."Hours after the assassination attempt, the Oversight Committee in the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives summoned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify at a hearing scheduled for July 22.The shots on Saturday appeared to come from outside the area secured by the Secret Service, the agency said.Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe said Butler Township police officers had responded to a call about a suspicious person, but were unaware he was armed. He said one officer helped hoist another officer up to look on the roof. As the officer pulled himself up he was confronted by the shooter."The shooter heard him or saw him, he turns around with his rifle and of course the guy just lets go and he falls to the ground," said Slupe. The shooter opened fire shortly afterwards, he said.
SPECTATOR KILLED PROTECTING FAMILY
The rally attendee killed on Saturday was identified by authorities as Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pennsylvania. He died trying to protect his family from the hail of bullets, said Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro."Corey was an avid supporter of the former president, and was so excited to be there," Shapiro said, adding, "Political disagreements can never, ever be addressed through violence."Two people wounded in the shooting were in a stable condition on Sunday. Pennsylvania State identified them as David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, Pennsylvania.Residents of Bethel Park, where the suspected shooter lived, expressed shock at the news on Sunday."It's a little crazy to think that somebody that did an assassination attempt is that close, but it just kind of shows the political dynamic that we're in right now with the craziness on each side," said resident Wes Morgan, 42, describing Bethel Park as "a pretty blue-collar type of area."While mass shootings at schools, nightclubs and other public places are common in the United States, the attack was the first shooting of a U.S. president or major party presidential candidate since the 1981 attempted assassination of Republican President Ronald Reagan.Americans fear rising political violence, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows, with two out of three respondents to a May survey saying they worried violence could follow the election.After Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a deadly riot fueled by Trump's false claims that his loss was the result of widespread fraud.
Reporting by Nathan Layne, Gabriella Borter and Soren Larson in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania; Additional reporting by Katharine Jackson, Sarah N. Lynch, Richard Cowan, Caitlin Webber, Nandita Bose, Ismail Shakil, Joseph Ax, Andrew Hay and Kanishka Singh; Writing by Frank McGurty, Scott Malone and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Howard Goller and Lincoln Feast.
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Open campaign events, such as Saturday's, are tough to secure against all threats, but insiders said they were surprised that the gunman was able to scale a roof overlooking the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Donald Trump was speaking.
Monday 15 July 2024 07:13, UK
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1:59 Watch moment Trump is shot
A "fundamental security failure" allowed a gunman to get close enough to Donald Trump to shoot him, according to an analysis of the scene of the assassination attempt.
Sky News analysis of the area where the former president was shot from as he gave a speech to supporters in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, suggests a large tree blocked the view between the gunman and the closest armed protection unit.
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Two armed units could be seen on the two warehouses behind Mr Trump, but because of the tree only the unit that was further away from the attacker had a clear view of him.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was on top of a warehouse between 130-140m from Mr Trump when he fired several rounds at the former president before being shot and killed by Secret Service agents.
Trump assassination latest: Bomb-making materials found in vehicle at suspect's home
Mr Trump was hit in the ear in the assassination attempt but has said "God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening", while one spectator - named as 50-year-old Corey Comperatore - was killed and two others seriously injured.
Security experts familiar with the demands of keeping politicians safe said "a fundamental security failure" occurred to allow the gunman to get close enough to carry out his attack.
Among those to comment was Steve Nottingham, who has helped provide security for visiting world leaders, including presidents.
The former Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team commander, suggested pre-event research and real-time monitoring of places a gunman could shoot from had broken down.
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1:34 What Trump said after being shot
He told NBC, Sky's US partner: "They were behind the curve, because they should have had those places covered ahead of time."
His comments come after the BBC interviewed a man who described himself as an eyewitness, who said he saw a man armed with a rifle crawling up a roof near the event.
The person, who the BBC did not name, said he and other people he was with started trying to alert security, pointing at the man.
Read more:
'Pop pop pop' - Witnesses describe moment of shooting
In pictures: Gunman fires multiple shots at Trump rally
Retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent Jim Cavanaugh said he was surprised the gunman was able to occupy a raised position within rifle range of the rally site.
Mr Cavanaugh said: "Whenever I've been with them, every single high ground is taken by them or the local SWAT police. There's nobody allowed walking on rooftops. They command the high ground."
He said a high-powered rifle like an AR-15 can hit targets 600ft (182m) away and Mr Trump was about 444ft (135m) from the rooftop where the gunman was found dead, NBC News said, based on an analysis of Google Earth images.
Mr Cavanaugh said: "Having been on Secret Service details, it's amazing to me that somebody was on an elevated position that they didn't know about."
But Pennsylvania State Police Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens defended those in charge of security, calling it "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".
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its role, NBC said.
But a spokesman for the service has denied online reports that it refused requests from the Trump campaign for greater security.
Spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement on the X social media platform on Sunday: "There's an untrue assertion that a member of the former president's team requested additional security resources and that those were rebuffed.
"This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo".
FBI special agent Kevin Rojek told reporters law enforcement was not aware there was a man on the rooftop until he started firing, and said it was "surprising" how many shots the gunman managed to fire.
Trump supporters in the front row of the rally heard a series of pops and saw Secret Service agents jump on the stage as Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate in November's presidential election, ducked.
Mr Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site a couple of hours later that a bullet "pierced the upper part of my right ear.
"I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realised then what was happening."
Former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras, who has protected multiple presidents, including Barack Obama and George W Bush, said it is impossible to eliminate every potential threat at a rally.
She said: "Somebody can be out in the distance and really engage your target from a long range, and there are weapons out there that allow you to do this.
"Let's say you hunkered [locked] this whole area down. You've got the magnetometers (instrument used for measuring magnetic forces); you've got the tactical element. Everything is locked and tight. How do you secure that outer perimeter? How far do you go? And can you cover everything? That's a problem.
"Even if somebody is in an elevated position or not, how do you secure all of those elevated positions when you have weapons with the capabilities that are able to shoot long distances? This is what you are up against."
Former New York City police officer Jillian Snider said it is routine for law enforcement to do a perimeter check extending a few hundred yards ahead of such an event.
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"That doesn't mean that someone can't sneakily make their way to one of those positions afterward, especially if it was someone who had done some preplanning. There are a lot of places in that area to hide, and you can't monitor every possible position.
"Someone who is that driven to do something like this will find a way to try and get the job done."
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Crooks was a registered Republican, according to state voter records
Crooks was a registered Republican, according to state voter records, and donated $15 to a Democratic political action committee when he was 17. At the time of the shooting he was employed as a dietary aide at a nursing home. The Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center said Crooks "performed his job without concern and his background check was clean."The gun - an AR-style-5.56 caliber rifle - had been legally bought, FBI officials said, adding they believed it had been purchased by the suspect's father. The officials said "a suspicious device" was found in the suspect's vehicle, which was inspected by bomb technicians and rendered safe.The Secret Service denied accusations by some Trump supporters that it had rejected a campaign request for more security, saying that it recently "added protective resources and capabilities to the former President's security detail."Hours after the assassination attempt, the Oversight Committee in the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives summoned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify at a hearing scheduled for July 22.The shots on Saturday appeared to come from outside the area secured by the Secret Service, the agency said.Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe said Butler Township police officers had responded to a call about a suspicious person, but were unaware he was armed. He said one officer helped hoist another officer up to look on the roof. As the officer pulled himself up he was confronted by the shooter."The shooter heard him or saw him, he turns around with his rifle and of course the guy just lets go and he falls to the ground," said Slupe. The shooter opened fire shortly afterwards, he said.
SPECTATOR KILLED PROTECTING FAMILY
The rally attendee killed on Saturday was identified by authorities as Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pennsylvania. He died trying to protect his family from the hail of bullets, said Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro."Corey was an avid supporter of the former president, and was so excited to be there," Shapiro said, adding, "Political disagreements can never, ever be addressed through violence."Two people wounded in the shooting were in a stable condition on Sunday. Pennsylvania State identified them as David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, Pennsylvania.Residents of Bethel Park, where the suspected shooter lived, expressed shock at the news on Sunday."It's a little crazy to think that somebody that did an assassination attempt is that close, but it just kind of shows the political dynamic that we're in right now with the craziness on each side," said resident Wes Morgan, 42, describing Bethel Park as "a pretty blue-collar type of area."While mass shootings at schools, nightclubs and other public places are common in the United States, the attack was the first shooting of a U.S. president or major party presidential candidate since the 1981 attempted assassination of Republican President Ronald Reagan.
Americans fear rising political violence, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows, with two out of three respondents to a May survey saying they worried violence could follow the election.After Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a deadly riot fueled by Trump's false claims that his loss was the result of widespread fraud.
Get weekly news and analysis on the U.S. elections and how it matters to the world with the newsletter On the Campaign Trail. Sign up here.
Reporting by Nathan Layne, Gabriella Borter and Soren Larson in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania; Additional reporting by Katharine Jackson, Sarah N. Lynch, Richard Cowan, Caitlin Webber, Nandita Bose, Ismail Shakil, Joseph Ax, Andrew Hay and Kanishka Singh; Writing by Frank McGurty, Scott Malone and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Howard Goller and Lincoln Feast.
Trump Shooter SUSPECT A NURSING HOME AIDE
Trump Shooter SUSPECT A NURSING HOME AIDE
The FBI identified Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the suspect and said the shooting was being investigated as an attempted assassination.FBI officials said on Sunday that the shooter acted alone. The agency said it had yet to identify an ideology linked to the suspect or any indications of mental health issues or found any threatening language on the suspect's social media accounts.Item 1 of 13 A pro-Trump supporter holds a portrait of former President Donald Trump during a demonstration in support of former U.S. President Donald Trump who was shot the previous day in an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania, in Huntington Beach, California, U.S. July 14, 2024. REUTERS/Etienne Laurent
]A pro-Trump supporter holds a portrait of former President Donald Trump during a demonstration in support of former U.S. President Donald Trump who was shot the previous day in an assassinatio
Crooks was a registered Republican, according to state voter records, and donated $15 to a Democratic political action committee when he was 17. At the time of the shooting he was employed as a dietary aide at a nursing home. The Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center said Crooks "performed his job without concern and his background check was clean."The gun - an AR-style-5.56 caliber rifle - had been legally bought, FBI officials said, adding they believed it had been purchased by the suspect's father. The officials said "a suspicious device" was found in the suspect's vehicle, which was inspected by bomb technicians and rendered safe.The Secret Service denied accusations by some Trump supporters that it had rejected a campaign request for more security, saying that it recently "added protective resources and capabilities to the former President's security detail."Hours after the assassination attempt, the Oversight Committee in the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives summoned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify at a hearing scheduled for July 22.The shots on Saturday appeared to come from outside the area secured by the Secret Service, the agency said.Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe said Butler Township police officers had responded to a call about a suspicious person, but were unaware he was armed. He said one officer helped hoist another officer up to look on the roof. As the officer pulled himself up he was confronted by the shooter."The shooter heard him or saw him, he turns around with his rifle and of course the guy just lets go and he falls to the ground," said Slupe. The shooter opened fire shortly afterwards, he said.
SPECTATOR KILLED PROTECTING FAMILY
The rally attendee killed on Saturday was identified by authorities as Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pennsylvania. He died trying to protect his family from the hail of bullets, said Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro."Corey was an avid supporter of the former president, and was so excited to be there," Shapiro said, adding, "Political disagreements can never, ever be addressed through violence."Two people wounded in the shooting were in a stable condition on Sunday. Pennsylvania State identified them as David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, Pennsylvania.Residents of Bethel Park, where the suspected shooter lived, expressed shock at the news on Sunday."It's a little crazy to think that somebody that did an assassination attempt is that close, but it just kind of shows the political dynamic that we're in right now with the craziness on each side," said resident Wes Morgan, 42, describing Bethel Park as "a pretty blue-collar type of area."While mass shootings at schools, nightclubs and other public places are common in the United States, the attack was the first shooting of a U.S. president or major party presidential candidate since the 1981 attempted assassination of Republican President Ronald Reagan.
Americans fear rising political violence, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows, with two out of three respondents to a May survey saying they worried violence could follow the election.After Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a deadly riot fueled by Trump's false claims that his loss was the result of widespread fraud.
Reporting by Nathan Layne, Gabriella Borter and Soren Larson in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania; Additional reporting by Katharine Jackson, Sarah N. Lynch, Richard Cowan, Caitlin Webber, Nandita Bose, Ismail Shakil, Joseph Ax, Andrew Hay and Kanishka Singh; Writing by Frank McGurty, Scott Malone and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Howard Goller and Lincoln Feast. a look at some of our recent projects and see the quality of our work for yourself. We have worked with a wide range of clients across various industries and are confident in our ability to meet any challenge.
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A large tree protected Trump Shooter
Analysis
Open campaign events, such as Saturday's, are tough to secure against all threats, but insiders said they were surprised that the gunman was able to scale a roof overlooking the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Donald Trump was speaking.
A "fundamental security failure" allowed a gunman to get close enough to Donald Trump to shoot him, according to an analysis of the scene of the assassination attempt.
Sky News analysis of the area where the former president was shot from as he gave a speech to supporters in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, suggests a large tree blocked the view between the gunman and the closest armed protection unit.
Monday 15 July 2024 07:13, UK
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SPECTATOR KILLED PROTECTING FAMILY
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