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.
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The guy on the grassy knoll, no doubt.
It was one roof where obviously a shooter could hit Trump!
I noticed that too. Proll’y just an angry hornet scared by the bullets whizzing by.
Yeah, but we have to take that with a grain of salt, because you know how he lies.
While on the topic of questions not asked:
Following the shooting and about the time of Bidens presser, Fox said the DNC just cancelled a $50 million ad buy the Biden campaign was set to release. I wonder what those ads were going to say. I speculate they were harsh Biden rhetoric that would not look good in the aftermath of the assassination attempt. This is why I doubt the attempt was orchestrated. Encouraged through hate rhetoric, yes, but controlled or set up? I don’t see the motivation. Trumps survival elevated him in the campaign and is not what Biden wanted to have to add to his campaign hurtles. This is karma for dems and all their hatred. They have set the stage for lawlessness and chaos at all levels of governing since COVID. They turned loose forces like antifa and BLM. But they can’t control the monsters they have allowed to fester. It is a dangerous time. Be prepared. JMHO.
I agree with you. It is probably the most reasonable / explainable one of all on this thread. Too bad others don’t see this.
Free Republic needs a like button or something.
Someone needs to ask what the actual rules of engagement were. I suspect they won’t want to disclose that for security reasons, but it’s critical to know if the SS snipers hands were tied prior to first shot.
There is no excuse for them. the one place a shooter could take up a position was that roof top. no other buildings around. none.
Yes, they saw the shooter on the roof and waited for him to shoot before they shot. It’s not supposed to work that way.
But according to witnesses, they didn’t think security could see the shooter because he was behind the roof line until the last second. Clearly there were no security personnel on the roof, or nearby roofs, not even local LEO’s, and right there is that level of incompetency you find so hard to accept. POSSIBLY conspiracy could set up that lack of security on the roof, but then you have to have several people involved, and the chances of hiding the plan are very poor.
The SS snipers were “covering” the roofline as they should, but, even then, unless their rifles just happen to be pointed EXACTLY where the shooter pops up, they have to ascertain the figure they see isn’t, say, a local LEO, and acquire the target. You can even see the closer sniper look up (the scope, of necessity, has a narrow field of view), reposition the rifle so the shooter is in the scope, then the sniper has to get the crosshairs on the shooter, and fire. That’s plenty of time for the shooter to get those 3 rushed shots off.
The ONLY failure they see is that their assassination plot didn’t kill Trump.
They let him on the roof and let him take his shots before the killed him to bury their tracks.
The red haired Trump supporter tried to get the attention of cops and SS. Those who ignored him need to be fired with prejudice. No pensions.
We don’t know what the officer saw. He has to make a split second decision that factors in many things. He has one shot.
What should have happened was having officers on the other roof. This was the big mistake yesterday. Not enough security.
Who says it was a mistake?
I've heard reports there were pipe bombs found last night in the shooter's van !!!!!
Very good post.
Yes, the shooter was rushed because he heard all the people yelling about him being on the roof with a gun. Thank God he was rushed but RIP to the man who was killed.
SService is responsible for vetting all areas. But, outside the venue it is local coppers to maintain vigilance.
Kinda like Ashlie was shot by a local copper.
Keep in mind that the suicide bomber that killed 13 Service Personnel during Biden's disgraceful "Afghanistan withdrawal" was also in a sniper's sights, but the sniper was not allowed to fire. The same traitors in our government are still calling the shots and they hate Trump worse than they hate their Taliban Bros.
‘A fundamental security failure’: How did a gunman open fire on a Trump rally?>>>. Correct headline is ‘A fundamental security failure’: How did the SS allow a rooftop 130 yards away from Trumps stage go unsecured? answer. They really wanted Trump to get shot.
This seems like an important question.
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