what about using common sense?
forget the reports for a moment and explain to me
do not refer to any of the reports or testimonies you have read, just give it a thought and explain the scenario of where which shooter was and how crooks must have been positioned to cause his injuries and hair puffs to flow around…
His brain would not explode if the 10th shot entered at his left mouth/jaw.
The problem is, the witness says his hair flew in the air at the 9th shot. Maybe caused by stock fragments. All these do not line up for me.
the bottom line is that eye witness reports are not gospel…
whatever they say, it is always to be taken with a serious heap of salt…
give it a try and go outside for a walk. record your walk with your smartphone and pay close attention to what happens around you.
when you come back, record your witness statement elaborating on what you have seen and experienced.
you will be amazed how much your statement will differ when you compare it to the recording of your walk…
and this is in no-stress conditions, now imagine what would be the difference in a more stressy situation…
ground swat guy confirmed the hit
But he stopped firing 1 second before and probably lowered his head. Then he turned to west.
Congressman’s report stated that shrapnel from the rifle damage hit Crooks’ cheek and neck.
The body has been creamted before lawmakers could see.
On the photo I can see only gore on his face from his ear, but there is no wound at the right side face. (Left face not shown.)
Sometimes I compared the explanation of different people. What was wrong, who made the mistake. - I guess the best training when you act alone, there is noone else to blame. Otherwise your brain may learn to make excuses for you.
Here’s some common sense:
Per the Congressman’s report: shot 9 by ground SWAT guy
A counter sniper shot Crooks, shot #10, and it had entry and exit wounds
When people get shot in the head, the force might also affect hairs attached to those areas, hence a puff
Crooks’ injuries probably didn’t include damage to his brain stem to the point where his heart stopped pumping immediately, so he probably lay there for some time with blood gushing out of his wound holes until his heart finally stopped and the pressures in his body equalized and the blood stopped flowing out.
Any number of ways???
If it hits the right parts of the top in front of a cheek or any of the stock on its right side: there’s zero engagement with the shooter’s body other than possible splinters/shrapnel flying off.
Many materials splinter. It doesn’t mean a shot had to be directly through any area. It could have been a graze.
How do you seriously not understand this?
There’s no point in continuing this discussion if you honestly can’t fathom that.
that is exactly right…
you cannot show any bullet path that matches what you believe happened…
the problem is that you swear by the correctness of the congressman’s report, and that report MUST be wrong because there is NO way that bullet 9 damaged the stock of that rifle…
as long as you do not see this, you are right, and it does not make sense to elaborate further on this…
Show me one official statement or piece of testimony that asserts that anything other than shot 9 damaged the rifle…
Oh, you can’t.
what about common sense?
do not hold your breath until a report comes out that reflects what really happened that day…
you will get very depressed the day that you realize that “official” reports by “independent” inquiries, even from congressmen, do not always match reality…
I have no dog in this debate and think it’s generally a fools errand without more data. I’ve stayed out of the discussion so far because it’s just not possible to know these unknowable things without more data so it’s “unknowable” at this point.
Thus far the shot could have come from about 120 degrees S or SE (most likely, 4 likely options), or from the 2nd story NW windows (no evidence of this, least likely).
Crooks could have been holding the rifle in a 90 degree angle perpendicular to his body and the shot could come from is direct front, such as moving the rifle to adjust his position, or perhaps doing an administrative action on the weapon, etc. Shot could come from the South, missing him.
Crooks could have been facing S but had the rifle pointed East, or West, in trying to move or look for an escape or ducking, moving. For instance hold the rifle in a shooting position mimicking Crooks, the point the rifle to your left (East) but look to the right (West). This puts the stock right in front of the likely mouth entry.
Or he was West, pointing the rifle at the crowd as seen on video, and the shot came from the South and winged the stock, missing him entirely. Or shot thru him and hit the stock upon exit.
Or in the prone, angled slightly up, facing S but with the rifle buttstock shouldered high, a bullet fired from the S or SE could glace off the upper rear stock, shattering it, but missing Crooks entirely.
It’s possible or likely he was adjusting, rolling, moving, ducking, moving the rifle, and the rifle was momentarily in between the counter-sniper and his head with the rifle struck on headshot entry, or behind the exit wound, and was damaged either during exit.
Diligent observations on the roof,
You left out this great pick.
That’s the big question, where is(are) the missing part(s) from the stock on the roof?
what’s the length of the missing part there, 1.3-1.4 inch?
4-5 inches based on the shoulder pad size.
The stock must not have been up against his cheek when hit,
as there is no relative damage to him, such as a bullet track or cuts.
This is 11-year old rifle. No evidence the damage happened on that roof. His father should be asked.
Based on the FBI pic with a scale under the Rifle, the missing stock piece is about 3"s long.
Have you handled a Magpul CTR stock, or any Magpul polymer product? Their stocks are not fragile and does not break that easily. It did not break from just rough handling or dropped. In general, I would say they are crayon eating US Marine proof.
notice that:
the fact that his hair is in between his cheek and the barrel could explain why there was more hair puff than skin damage while taking a bullet coming in from his left cheek/jaw/chin…
(I know the above image is not to scale as I do not know the size of his head)
I aligned and resized the rifle from the evidence photos of the fast buriers of information as good as possible, which leads to this:
this is what a freshly unboxed 400 USD DPMS A-15 looks like, based on the unboxing video by Alaska John (https://youtu.be/glnK954GI_U):
(as you may have noticed, I am not a professional image manipulator like some in this forum: I only know how to use powerpoint to resize and overlay images)
while I was resizing these images, it occurred to me that there is something important MISSING from the evidence photos…
none of the evidence photos or reports or testimonies mention anything about magazines or clips he would have used on that roof…
questions to @cmartenson :
there are images of the rifle on the roof WITH the magazine:
but the magazine seems to have disappeared from the later evidence photos…
Seems likely. But it probably got his attention.
