https://babylonbee.com/news/fbi-wonders-if-perhaps-theyve-been-investigating-the-wrong-people

But FWIW –

https://nypost.com/2024/07/14/us-news/local-cop-confronted-sniper-thomas-matthew-crooks-before-he-shot-former-president-trump-report/

After rallygoers spotted Crooks on the roof of a manufacturing plant just 130 yards from the stage where Trump was speaking just after 6 p.m. Tuesday, police were notified and one officer climbed a ladder to investigate, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

The officer – whose department had been enlisted by the Secret Service to help with security — encountered Crooks, who pointed his AR-style rifle at them. [sic – really, what is WRONG with our conservative news media!]

The officer then backed down the ladder, and Crooks immediately took aim and loosed about eight shots at the former president – grazing him in the ear, killing one bystander in the rally crowd, and gravely wounding two others, the source said.

After that volley of shots, Secret Service snipers shot Crooks dead.

Despite the Secret Service’s quick response taking out the shooter, the agency tasked with protecting former and current presidents’ lives is facing harsh scrutiny for allowing a gunman to establish an open position so close to Trump’s rally.

“This was a catastrophic failure. It should never have been a remote possibility,” former House Oversight Committee chair Jason Chaffet, who lead an extensive 2015 investigation into the shortcomings of the Secret Service in 2015, told the Washington Post.

“We did all these investigations and did an extensive report so this would never happen again. It’s as if they paid no attention to the bipartisan recommendations,” said Chaffet, whose report focused on ways the Secret Service had been spread too thin.

The Secret Service confirmed after the shooting that it relied heavily on local police to help support its security efforts at the rally, including at least six officers from Butler County tactical units supporting the counter assault team that covered Trump’s evacuation – which only included two officers from the Secret Service, according to the Washington Post.

There were also two Secret Service sniper teams on sight, and an additional two were staffed with local officers.

“Secret Service always has the lead on securing something like this,” Pennsylvania State Police lieutenant colonel George Bivens told reporters, explaining that local police are routinely enlisted to help the Secret Service.

However, from that post, here is an excellent photo showing the buildings.
Leaving the sniper’s chosen vantage unsecured is indefensible.

https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/trump-grounds.jpg?quality=75&strip=all

The comments about the alleged policeman’s response range from comparisons to the Uvalde school cops up to a few exculpatory suggestions — he was on a ladder and the shooter pointed a rifle at him — the one that I would accept is that the incident may have thrown off the shooter’s concentration enough to cause him to miss Trump.

My question has from the beginning been “why would an assassin aim for the head instead of the torso,” but that might explain it.

I believe that there has been some speculation that a lot of these shooters—over the years— have been on such drugs, and that these drugs may have been—to some extent—responsible for their killing sprees.

One recent article claimed that there was, indeed, a correlation between taking these very powerful drugs and these killings, but that this link has been covered up (because big pharma doesn’t want this connection to be recognized?).

I know people who were loners and who were bullied as kids who turned out fine, some of them very successful adults. We need more information.

neo:

Yes, I know you don’t like it on the facts. Not sure why you’re telling me. I’ve read Bugliosi and I’ve mentioned that in JFK topics here.

I still say it’s a great film as filmmaking and the Donald Sutherland quote stands as commonsense — ignored by the SS yesterday.

The young woman closest to Trump does seem to have been too small to protect him fully, but nobody can fault her courage, right there with him while her own head and back were fully exposed and nobody knew yet whether the shooting was over. He’s a big guy, and even with larger men on his other sides, he was too exposed for too long while they got him to the car. Shields of some sort do seem wise. I imagine, though, that they’d be awkward to carry and could limit the agents’ ability to move quickly. Obviously this isn’t my field of expertise.