Posted on 07/14/2024 6:26:30 AM PDT by DoodleBob
How does a gunman, in plain view of some spectators, manage to open fire on a former president at a campaign rally protected by federal and local law enforcement?
That is the frightening and unanswered question facing the country — and security officials — after Donald Trump said he suffered a graze wound on his right ear while he was speaking in a field in Butler, Pennsylvania, and left the stage with a bloodied head.
Secret Service personnel shot and killed the gunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, immediately after he opened fire, the FBI said. A spectator was killed and two additional spectators were injured, but it was not immediately clear who shot them.
The assassination attempt, in which Crooks fired multiple shots at the stage from a roof outside the venue’s security perimeter, appeared to be the result of a grave lapse, perhaps the biggest since President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded outside a Washington hotel in 1981.
Security experts said it was difficult, and perhaps impossible, to eliminate every threat, particularly with long-range weapons and outdoor events.
But some said routine precautions should have prevented the shooter from getting onto the nearby roof.
>Steve Nottingham, a former SWAT commander in Long Beach, California, called Saturday’s shooting “a fundamental security failure.”
He has worked security details for visiting world leaders, including presidents, and now trains officers on how to respond to critical incidents. He pointed at likely breakdowns in the pre-event scouting and real-time monitoring of places a gunman could shoot from.
“They were behind the curve, because they should have had those places covered ahead of time,” Nottingham said.
Jim Cavanaugh, a retired special agent in charge with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who has been on Secret Service details, said he was surprised that the shooter was able to occupy an elevated position within rifle range of the rally site.
“Whenever I’ve been with them, every single high ground is taken by them or the local SWAT police,” Cavanaugh said. “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 200 yards away. Trump was about 148 yards from the rooftop where the shooter was found dead, NBC News found, based on an analysis of Google Earth images.
Cavanaugh added: “Having been on Secret Service details, it’s amazing to me that somebody was on an elevated position that they didn’t know about.”
Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens defended the Secret Service at a news conference after the shooting.
“It is incredibly difficult to have a venue open to the public and to secure that against any possible threat against a very determined attacker,” Bivens said. “That’s a huge lift.”
“The investigation will really give us an opportunity to take a look at where any failures occurred and what can be done better in the future,” he added.
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FBI is leading the investigation, including its crisis response team members and evidence response technicians, it said in a statement Saturday evening.
Last month, as the presidential campaign heated up, the Secret Service said it was increasing the size of the detail assigned to Trump. The protection was bulked up “to ensure the highest level of security for not only the event sites but the travel in between events,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said at the time.
Perhaps the first sign that something was going wrong as Trump spoke Saturday came when spectators said they noticed a man with rifle bear-crawling on a nearby roof. One recalled trying to get the attention of law enforcement.
“The police are down there running around on the ground. We’re like, ‘Hey man, there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle,’” the witness told BBC News. “And the police were like, ‘Huh, what?’ Like they didn’t know what was going on. We’re like, ‘Right here on the roof. We can see him from right here. We see him. He’s crawling.’”
A couple of minutes later, the man opened fire, the witness said.
Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, said at a news conference that law enforcement was not aware of the man’s presence on the rooftop until he started firing.
“It is surprising,” Rojek conceded when pressed by a reporter on the number of shots the gunman managed to fire.
He referred questions about advance security precautions to the Secret Service.
In the front row of the rally, attendees heard a series of pops and saw Secret Service agents jump on the stage. One, who identified herself as Erin, told NBC News that she saw blood on Trump’s ear. She did not fear for her own safety, she said. “We were only concerned about him,” she said, referring to Trump.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social 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,” Trump wrote. “Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.”
Former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras said it is impossible to eliminate every potential threat in a situation like Saturday’s.
Outdoor rallies pose enormous security challenges given the availability of high-powered weapons, Poumpouras 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,” said Poumpouras, who protected multiple presidents, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush, during her 12 years with the Secret Service.
“Let’s say you hunkered this whole area down. You’ve got the magnetometers; 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.”
She added: “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.”
Jillian Snider, a retired New York City police officer who was often detailed to political events, said it is routine for law enforcement to do a perimeter check extending a few hundred yards ahead of such an event.
“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,” said Snider, an adjunct lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “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,” she added.
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
It will make you angry to see the video posted (until the FBI takes it down) on theconservativetreehouse.com, and realize the SS/police snipers had already targeted the shooter for several minutes, and then let him get off 4 shots before they decided to take him out.
This should be the biggest story of the year. This is disgusting. No excuses.
Surely the SS were communicating on their radios, and allowed the kill shot on President Trump. They were willing to let the shooter takes shots before they did anything. Their inaction also allowed 3 innocent bystanders to either be killed or injured, in addition to the fact Trump would have been killed had he not turned his head as the bullet was coming towards his head.
It will make you angry to see the video posted (until the FBI takes it down) on theconservativetreehouse.com, and realize the SS/police snipers had already targeted the shooter for several minutes, and then let him get off 4 shots before they decided to take him out.
This should be the biggest story of the year. This is disgusting. No excuses.
Surely the SS were communicating on their radios, and allowed the kill shot on President Trump. They were willing to let the shooter takes shots before they did anything. Their inaction also allowed 3 innocent bystanders to either be killed or injured, in addition to the fact Trump would have been killed had he not turned his head as the bullet was coming towards his head.
Obviously I don’t know but I’ve been wondering along with you. I think “maybe” this poor guy that killed the assasin “most likely” just couldn’t make up his mind until he saw and heard the shots fired and saw Trump go down.
Or, some DEI type “boss” of his would not give him authority to shoot.
They probably Check out sites like FR to find out what the right winger are saying
And the add their own spin to it.
No kidding. If you don’t totally trust them, give them only short range handguns, pick out 3 for each roof who likely don’t know each other (good golly, how many departments within 60 miles of Butler?), etc.
They showed two images of the dweeb shooter. One was his high graduation video, the other was a picture from his looked to be 7th grade annual.
Here is some wild speculation.
1) After checking the various rooftops, the SS delegated controlling building/roof access to them to local police. The shooter ran up to Gomer and Wally and said something like, “Deputies, Help, they’re looting the Food King”, and Bob’s your uncle.
2) Whoever was supposed to control the perimeter was in league with the shooter.
One wonders why the SS would not have set up surveillance cameras at all suspect locations, and maybe an overhead drone (drone question was raised by Lazamataz yesterday), feeding a bank of monitors overseen by a responsible person. See guy wth a rifle; radio SS sniper with location and alert the whole team to go into protection mode. Situation over.
How do you not have somebody on that roof, or at the very least, send someone to that roof IMMEDIATELY when someone is spotted moving around on it? People in the crowd were telling the police and nothing was done. There’s video of somebody in the crowd yelling “he’s got a gun” BEFORE the first shots ring out.
It’s sad that the absolute *best* outcome of this is gross incompetence and the worst hardly bears thinking about.
}:-)4
Sorry, but that's impossible, unless the first shot missed. The speed of a bullet from an AR15 or equivalent is ~3000 ft/sec. The speed of sound is 1125 ft/sec.
I thought a witness said somebody, probably the shooter, climbed up to the roof shortly before shooting (after Trump was at the podium?). If that is true, still no excuse for what happened. Will the Secret Service update their procedures now? Does the SS use something like ISO9001?
“There’s something fishy about this assignation attempt on Pres. Trump’s life. “
The real question is how a 20 year old kid outsmarted law enforcement that is supposedly the cream of the crop. Since mammals that could be called “men” have existed, the “high ground” has been the obvious place to occupy in a war. And if you can’t occupy it, at least be able to closely observe it.
The explanation on “too many shots” is simple, having to do with the speed of sound and human reaction time. By the time the SWAT guy heard the shot (and present rules of engagement being what they are, he had to know that the gun had been fired before he could fire), add in his own processing/reaction time, and there’s at least a second right there.
How does this saying go - never blame malice for something more easily explained by incompetence/stupidity. But still…?
Why the heck were a couple of them not stationed on the roof?
I lean much more toward incompetence than conspiracy, but this is pretty incredible incompetence. It is typical of this Administration, though.
“Surely the SS were communicating on their radios, and allowed the kill shot on President Trump.”
Agreed—there were probably at least three SS folks in on it—communications is the key in any operation—and the conspirators planned accordingly.
[It happened because Deep State powers wanted it to happen.]
Bottom line...yeah.
Good points about roof access to a manufacturing plant. Why wasn’t it locked?
The number of agents on-site would be determined by higher ups, not the agent in charge at the scene. The agent in charge at the scene would have to work with what he was given. We know Trump requested more security, but was turned down.
There are pics of two Secret Service agents on a roof with sniper rifles. If those two snipers were all that were available to work the rooftops, then there was no way to cover the venue out to reasonable perimeter. There probably should have been 2 or 3 times the number of agents assigned to a big venue like that.
The bureaucrats will try to blame the agent in charge at the scene, but the fault lies in D.C. where there was no concern with protecting Trump.
I have no doubt the SS is totally incompetent—but that just makes it easier for the Deep State to knock off somebody guarded by them.
Blast from the past: Seconds after shots were fired in Dealey Plaza in 1963 witnesses ran up the grassy knoll to the top of the hill. They had heard shots whizzing past their ears and heads and ran towards the shooter or shooters.
At the top of the knoll they were greeted by men in suits carrying and displaying Secret Service badges. “We have got this. This is a secure area.”
Punchline: There were no real Secret Service agents at the top of the grassy knoll.
The Deep State plays dirty.
Oswald was taken out with one shot. The deep state always silences the Patsy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.