PA - Assassination attempt, shooting injures former POTUS Donald Trump, leaves 1 spectator deceased two in critical condition, 13 July 2024 #3

[Sarahlou]

I would really like to know who, exactly, that royal family member was.

New York Times correspondent Glenn Thrush claimed on X that it's Catherine, Princess of Wales

Edit- just tried to find it but he may have removed it

 

[Chimera]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/14/politics/secret-service-faces-serious-questions-about-security-footprint-and-rooftop-access-at-trump-event/index.html

Cheatle, according to The New York Times, sent a memo on Sunday, praising the agents who were with Trump at the rally Saturday for moving quickly and neutralizing the threat. “The attempted assassination of former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, is a moment that forever will be remembered in history,” she wrote in the memo, which was reviewed by the Times.

CNN has reached out to the Secret Service about the reported memo.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers are already demanding answers from the agency on the security posture and hearings on the incident.
Red emphasis mine.
The bolded sentence in the article is curious.
Almost as if CNN is questioning it ?

I do agree that the attempted assassination will be remembered in history , but perhaps not for the reasons that Ms. Cheatle may think ?
So many chances to prevent this.
There are questions being asked and rightfully so -- regarding accountability.
Omo.

 

[Cryptic]

He had photos of multiple political figures on his phone. It seems like he wanted to cause damage on a catastrophic level, but it needed to be someone famous for him. He wanted to be someone, maybe even for once in his life.

I thin this is a good summary of the kind of motive that is being developed:

- If I murder John Lennon, I become like John Lennon- if only for a moment.
- If I cant get to Trump, then my ticket to "fame" will be Biden- or the current mega popular pop star.
- Wow, I am getting to Trump- cant believe its sooo easy!!

 

[MassGuy]

Trump shooter Thomas Crooks might have been battling undiagnosed mental illness: sources

Thomas Matthew Crooks may have been struggling with an undiagnosed mental health disorder — including some form of depression — before he shot up Trump’s Pennsylvania rally, sourc…

nypost.com

-It’s also believed Crooks fits the profile of a loner or outcast whose life has been characterized by isolation or rejection, with obsessive-compulsive tendencies and a knack for the mechanical or technical, including guns, sources said.

The investigation so far has shown Crooks had virtually no online presence, so authorities are focusing on poring over his electronic devices for answers to why he nearly assassinated former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday.

-But the search has been slow due to the high volume of material authorities need to sift through — some 4.5 terabytes of data across a laptop, USB drives and two cellphones, sources said.

Searches of one of his phones haven’t revealed any clear motive for the young killer so far, but his web browser history revealed a broad interest in high-profile people, celebrities and politicians, regardless of their ideology.

 

[Eli9]

Does anyone know if the shooters car with the explosive device would have been on the same route the former President's motorcade would have traveled by either into or out of the rally? Could it have been a back-up plan if he wasn't able to pull off the shooting?

 

[Chimera]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2024/trump-rally-shooting-maps-secret-service-analysis/

Thanks for the link, @Cindizzi !
From the link :

The Post’s 3D model established that both units may have been hampered by the pitch of the building’s roof where Crooks was found, which rises roughly 3.5 ft from its exterior walls to its peak. According to the analysis, which placed a camera at the eye view of the teams, Crooks would likely not have been visible as he crawled up the roof to take his final shooting position.
The Post’s reconstruction shows that the northernmost Secret Service counter sniper team closest to the suspect — slightly more than 400 feet away and atop an approximately 23 foot tall barn — may have further struggled to see him because of two trees located between them.

Red emphasis mine.

My opinion on this is that the SS sniper teams could have been more able to see TC because the pitch of the roof TC was laying on is shorter.

If the trees were an obstacle, then either local LE snipers or simply the other pair of SS snipers should have taken up a position on the roof TC was on.
If the secret service was stretched thin that day, use one team on top of the roof that wasn't covered, as the other two buildings were close enough to each other that one team could've covered both rooftops ?

I get it this is from a layman's perspective.
However -- it's just common sense, imo.
Omo.

 

[Arkay]

I’m an old lady who knows nothing about gaming sites, but even if this Steam comment were actually true, IMO it could seem very innocuous. Some kid saying to watch his premiere on a gaming site wouldn’t raise red flags. It could mean anything and LE can’t infer a dire threat from every bragging kid online.

HOWEVER, a kid with a gun within proximity to a former president/current presidential candidate is an ENTIRELY different situation. Now there is a potentially deadly scenario, in real life.

I also know nothing about guns and have no interest in them, so my mind blanks a bit when all you knowledgeable posters explain the specifics—-but from what I can determine, it’s absolutely true that Trump unknowingly turning his head at the exact right second is the only reason he isn’t dead or brain-damaged.

I agreed previously with everyone in the last thread, that once TC’s target list became known it now appears the he was hunting for “big game.” He wanted to die making an impact so his existence would forever be in the history books.

JMO

 

[justtrish]

Admittedly with each new article read my ire grows.
So many chances to stop this and Mr. Comperatore would still be with us.

Never mind the secret service and local LE's changing accounts !

Conflicting Accounts Emerge About Security at Trump Rally

Federal and local officials differed over where a sniper team was when a gunman fired at former President Donald J. Trump, adding to questions about the Secret Service response.

www.nytimes.com

The director of the Secret Service said that the local forces were in the same building that the sniper fired from, but a local law enforcement official told The New York Times that was not the case, and that the officers were in an adjacent building.

Secret Service spotted Trump rally shooter on roof 20 minutes before gunfire erupted

Twenty minutes passed between the time USSS snipers first spotted Crooks on the roof and the time shots were fired at the former president, new information shows.

abcnews.go.com

Secret Service counter snipers positioned on buildings close to the rally stage were aware the AGR building was being used as a staging area by law enforcement, sources said. Investigators believe that could have led to a delay in the Secret Service sharpshooters' reactions because they had to first figure out whether the suspect was a threat, sources said.

"Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time, and it makes it very difficult," Cheatle said during the interview with ABC News.
Red emphasis mine.

If the secret service were looking at TC through their scopes, wouldn't they know he was already a threat ?
Further, wouldn't all of this (who was to be placed on which roof, or if some rooftops were not going to have security on them, etc.,) have been discussed beforehand ???
This entire crime and tragedy is a travesty and a disgrace.
Entirely preventable, imo.
Maybe ... we need to, "Make the Secret Service Great Again" ?
Omo.

I know it's always hindsight and all... but why didn't they simply delay Trump coming out until they had engaged with this potential threat and determined that he was or was not actually a threat. Surely nobody should be on a roof near the target they are protecting. Why not err on the side of caution and just simply delay Trump coming out to speak for a few more minutes while someone climbed up there and got this resolved.

 

[justtrish]

Thanks for the link, @Cindizzi !
From the link :

The Post’s 3D model established that both units may have been hampered by the pitch of the building’s roof where Crooks was found, which rises roughly 3.5 ft from its exterior walls to its peak. According to the analysis, which placed a camera at the eye view of the teams, Crooks would likely not have been visible as he crawled up the roof to take his final shooting position.
The Post’s reconstruction shows that the northernmost Secret Service counter sniper team closest to the suspect — slightly more than 400 feet away and atop an approximately 23 foot tall barn — may have further struggled to see him because of two trees located between them.

Red emphasis mine.

My opinion on this is that the SS sniper teams could have been more able to see TC because the pitch of the roof TC was laying on is shorter.

If the trees were an obstacle, then either local LE snipers or simply the other pair of SS snipers should have taken up a position on the roof TC was on.
If the secret service was stretched thin that day, use one team on top of the roof that wasn't covered, as the other two buildings were close enough to each other that one team could've covered both rooftops ?

I get it this is from a layman's perspective.
However -- it's just common sense, imo.
Omo.

Just blows my mind that this kid either figured this all out ahead of time or just got THAT lucky to pick the building that would be be difficult for the SS to get a good view of him. The fact he was inchworming up the back side of the building tells me he was worried about being seen and attempting to hide, but how did he know that no other sniper teams were anywhere behind where he was? Did he assume there would be none outside the secure area?

I am curious if when he was looking up these other high profile people if he was attempting to research security protocols to try to figure out exactly how much security there would be and typically how they set up when high profile people were there.

I also am curious what else was going on that day at the airport close by. Who was there or what event was there?

 

[justtrish]

Well I answered my own question with google. The airport was holding an annual car show from 1pm to 1030pm that day.

Penn Twp VFD Car Cruise – Penn Township

 

[Sundog]

Given his, according to his classmates, political leanings, along with the point you mentioned above, and his last social media post.. I'm wondering if it wasn't motivated by attention seeking and notoriety more than political motivation. Time may tell, or it might not.

It could have been both when it finally came down to him making his choice of venue and target.

 

[Eli9]

DBM

 

[justtrish]

Also, just a google search "is anyone in the royal family visiting the US in 2024" yielded this article and it was dated June 23, 2024. Soo did the shooter see something about this on the news (working in a retirement home I bet many of the residents keep up on news and are likely watching news shows or reading papers/magazines he would see in passing).. Then he searched more info about it. I doubt he thought he'd make a trip overseas with his rifle to carry out something, but a royal vising the US would give him an opportunity.

King Charles might travel to America to see Prince Harry, wants ‘resolution’ in their feud: expert

King Charles is allegedly “desperate” to see his two grandchildren who live in the United States.

nypost.com

 

[DS2021]

The piece about the Steam message has been debunked, i want to post this tho.

Trump rally gunman purportedly left message on gaming platform before shooting: Sources

The 20-year-old gunman searched for both Trump and President Joe Biden on his phone, sources said.

abcnews.go.com

Investigators also found internet searches for both Trump and President Joe Biden on the phone belonging to Thomas Matthew Crooks, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News. Crooks, 20, had searched for the dates of Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and for those of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the sources said.

 

[MassGuy]

Thomas Matthew Crooks' Discord Profile Was Removed For Violation

The guy who tried assassinating Donald Trump had an active Discord account ... but he never mentioned violence or his murderous plans on the platform, TMZ has learned.

www.tmz.com

A Discord rep says ... "Based on our investigation, the suspect rarely used Discord and had not been active in months, and we found no evidence that he planned this incident, promoted violence, or discussed his political views on Discord."

TMC's profile has since been removed from the site, with the company citing a violation of "our off-platform behavior policy" ... adding, "We strongly condemn violence of any kind, including political violence, and we will continue to coordinate closely with law enforcement."

 

[MassGuy]

This doesn’t make sense yet it does make sense. It doesn’t make sense based on his clothing, but does make sense based on the engagement delay.

Maybe it’s a practice for police to dress up as civilians at these things, but that comes with its own risks.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1813978705259368652

https://twitter.com/x/status/1813978709113856319

 

[Elley Mae]

This doesn’t make sense yet it does make sense. It doesn’t make sense based on his clothing, but does make sense based on the engagement delay.

Maybe it’s a practice for police to dress up as civilians at these things, but that comes with its own risks.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1813978705259368652

https://twitter.com/x/status/1813978709113856319

Had that thought but seems all the shooters would have known the others location.

 

[GatorFL]

@MassGuy

Regarding your post on the last thread here: PA - Assassination attempt, shooting injures former POTUS Donald Trump, leaves 1 spectator deceased two in critical condition, 13 July 2024 #2

Bad shot vs good shot. I think was Crooks was an OK shot, obviously he had been practicing. I think the first few shots of his volley he aimed and then afterwards it was "spray and pray" before the SS Counter sniper took him out. JMO. Thoughts?

 

[Mirabel091]

This doesn’t make sense yet it does make sense. It doesn’t make sense based on his clothing, but does make sense based on the engagement delay.

Maybe it’s a practice for police to dress up as civilians at these things, but that comes with its own risks.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1813978705259368652

https://twitter.com/x/status/1813978709113856319

If they thought local LE had secured that building, then anyone on the roof must be local LE?

 

[GatorFL]

Thanks for the link, @Cindizzi !
From the link :

The Post’s 3D model established that both units may have been hampered by the pitch of the building’s roof where Crooks was found, which rises roughly 3.5 ft from its exterior walls to its peak. According to the analysis, which placed a camera at the eye view of the teams, Crooks would likely not have been visible as he crawled up the roof to take his final shooting position.
The Post’s reconstruction shows that the northernmost Secret Service counter sniper team closest to the suspect — slightly more than 400 feet away and atop an approximately 23 foot tall barn — may have further struggled to see him because of two trees located between them.

Red emphasis mine.

My opinion on this is that the SS sniper teams could have been more able to see TC because the pitch of the roof TC was laying on is shorter.

If the trees were an obstacle, then either local LE snipers or simply the other pair of SS snipers should have taken up a position on the roof TC was on.
If the secret service was stretched thin that day, use one team on top of the roof that wasn't covered, as the other two buildings were close enough to each other that one team could've covered both rooftops ?

I get it this is from a layman's perspective.
However -- it's just common sense, imo.
Omo.

They should have had a counter sniper on the water tower, tallest thing in the area.