This does beg the question…why is Trump not using his own specialized security team? I’ve seen multiple former military personnel (who provide security details for other diplomats all around the world) claim they would protect Trump for free and no one would touch him (all he has to do is call). Those would be my guys. Former SEALS and RANGERS who are already in the protection business full-time.
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At the very least, have his own counter-surveillance team as Bongino is so adamant about the Secret Service not providing him. Right?
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And yet a conundrum that adds many more questions to a seemingly endless list of questions without concrete answers.
Assuming this to be postmortem shot, cui bono, to whom is it a benefit? If he is already clearly dead, what point is there to take a shot at his leg, of all things? What can anyone gain from something like this?
I do recall in one of the bwc videos something standing out to me, in BWC2-122110, at 15:45 video time, 18:15:47 bwc time, you can clearly make out someone yelling directions at Thomas, presumably already dead, but still, “LET ME SEE YOUR HANDS!”, clear as day. And I can make out some form of instruction before that, but I can’t quite hear it well enough, but the phrase “Let me see your hands!” is repeated many times clearly audibly, and I believe most likely many times that are being distorted with the other audio around the camera.
And that begs the question, were he to not comply (because clearly, he couldn’t even if he wanted to), do you think first on scene law enforcement would fire upon him, eventually?
All valid questions. If I wasn’t already consumed by my other analyses I would take this on.
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The USSS CS teams have Police in large letters and Secret Service below in smaller letters on their plate carriers patches. This is clearly visable in pictures of them on the ground after the shooting.
It would be highly unusual in the US, for one agency to wear another agencies patches.
You have shown a pic of the rifle you carried in the Army, which is not a US Army firearm. I don’t know what country you’re in, but I doubt it is the USA. As such you may not understand the way things are done here.
Magpul CTR stock is made of a hard polymer. I’ve never seen a broken one but I envision a really hard impact would shatter a section. This broken stock is exactly what my mind would envision if one were shot with a rifle. In the absence of any other explanation of how it became broken in those moments, a gunshot is the a consistent and not inconsistent explanation.
Looking at the best images from the rooftop rifle, I can make out the color variance and the chunk missing where it was broken.
It’s speculation at best on how Crooks was exactly holding the rifle when shot, and the angle the bullet came from. One pure speculation, if he had the rifle in a prone aiming position with his cheek on the rear of the stock, similar but maybe more exaggerated than we see in pictures, and a bullet came from his 1 or 2 o’clock, said bullet could obliterate the stock and enter his mouth and exit the back of his neck.
But there’s a bunch of possibilities of the rifle being in different positions (not against his shoulder) and bullet might have come from different direction than frontal… or the shot from the south but he’s turned at an 90 degree angle. Here’s him turning right before he was shot. Bullet from the south might have missed him but clipped the rear top of the stock.
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My best speculation.
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The amount of blood loss suggests he was incapacitated but not dead immediately, maybe not for minutes. The injury was clearly fatal, but perhaps not immediately fatal. Might have laid there semi-conscious for minutes.
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First team on the roof may have observed him injured, bleeding, but “non-compliant” to “show me your hands,” and “throw aside the weapon.” And a shot for good measure, especially if he moved at all. Or to “see if he’s dead.” Morbid and probably against policy. But reality.
That might explain what appears to be a bloodless gunshot wound to the leg.
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That’s a bit misleading if true. Current Presidents doing anything including election campaigns are going to have counter-snipers. Pretty sure I’ve seen them before.
This is unique b/c Mr. Trump is a former President but not the current President. I suspect this is the first instance since the invention of the SS that a former President is running for re-election but not the current President at the time. No other POTUS in my life or in a century had a break in office and 2 non-consecutive terms.
Since his 2016 election I’ve wondered this myself. It wasn’t a hard prediction that, given their negative TDS hysterics and outright threats towards him (the Giffords beheading, the calls for violence, the bogus investigations, the impeachments, his 2020 run, the hatred, the false prosecutions, etc.) they’d be going for an assassination. I think Tucker Carlson publicly stated as much a year ago. So it was not a hard line to draw in my view.
I’ve thought for many many years now he should have hired at least his own small team to be oversight, closest to him, etc. And why it’s taken so long to get ballistic glass panels surrounding him on stage is a mystery. Something he should have done in 2016 or so. He has just been a standing target for many years on stages nationwide.
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@kincses-zsolt @redranamber
The picture shows his leg position after they rolled him over at timestamp 18:17:57 (in order to put him handcuffs on).
His leg position beforehand was first captured by BWC2-122110 at timestamp 18:17:02
This is the position of Ben Shaffer [Edit: it’s not Ben but most likely Matthew, Officer at Cecil Township Police] (Washington Regional SWAT, in blue) and ? (Butler ESU, in camouflage)
This would have been their view
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I don’t see anyone carrying a suppressed small caliber pistol. If their rifle is suppressed, it is not ‘movie quiet’ suppressed. No recording has come out with that late shot on it. IMO, someone, LEO or not would have mentioned a shot that late.
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- Was anyone recording that late, possibly many minutes later?
- Whether pistol or rifle, looks like the shot entered the upper calf, blew out thru the knee. So it would have come from his rear, the access point to the roof where the police were staging to climb.
I have no other info or ideas.
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If that is a gunshot wound to his right leg from close range, shouldn’t we be looking for another casing and/or bullet on the roof?
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Seriously? I never figured one of the ESU counter-snipers as one of the officers accessing the roof after the shooting. He came a long ways from the grandstands if that’s him. And he would have to stow is rifle, not leave it setup out in the open. Are you sure that’s Ben Shaffer?
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How close are you envisioning the shooter to have gotten to Crooks?
To me the shot looks almost parallel trajectory to the roof, right up thru the length of his leg out the knee. Suggests a shot from perhaps far back in the parking lot to the E of the AGR, or a boosted officer on the building connector as the closest shot.
From lower, and possibly farther back (even into the parking lot) from this general angle, as an illustration.
Remarkably, it does seem like Shaffer was one of the first (three) officers on the roof. (See this post among others.)
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I was thinking of someone directly behind him, for example, on the breezeway (“connector”). But in any case, the bullet might still be on the roof.
Also, if there was another such shot after the main shooting, wouldn’t that have been picked up on one or more of the various audio recorders in the vicinity of AGR 6? And don’t officers have to file a report every time they discharge their weapon?
So, it does look to me like a bullet entrance and exit wound on his right leg, but how could not more evidence for this have surfaced in the last 7 weeks?
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Well, I’ll be damned! In his congressional forum interview he did mention a teammate, possibly a spotter, but either way that person likely stayed at Shaffer’s nest.
I wonder if there was possibly another Shaffer in the ESU group.
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I like this idea but I have questions…
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Are there any countersnipers at Crooks 1 or 2 o’clock position at 400 yards out?
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What if the sniper that we believe took the 9th shot instead took the tenth shot (when he thrust his arm into the air?)
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The ninth shot coming in from 400 yards wouldn’t register as hot on Trump’s mic, but if the ground sniper took the tenth shot would it register hot as @cmartenson claims it does? That countersniper is obviously closer but the shot doesn’t come over the top of the mic.
Pure speculation but what if the ninth shot (from 400 yards) takes out the stock from the 1 or 2 o’clock position and our ground sniper delivers the head shot? It could be the reason why his head wasn’t blown off with a 30 caliber and also answer the 400-yard shot comment that keeps being tossed out. Unfortunately, everything would have to line up with the sound data, and that keeps tripping us up. Can one of the sound guys debunk this hypothesis?
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I don’t know what I’m looking at but I’ve seen gunshot wounds before and I’m not convinced that’s one.
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Don’t know, but Crooks’ 1 or 2 o’clock could have possibly been almost any direction to the south or south west depending on his movements. He was known to have faced S and SW.
As for a counter sniper there were teams on the roof near the retaining pond, of course Hercules South, and LEOs on the ground.
If Crooks was dead and bled out it might look like a GSW where there’s no bleeding.
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