The Unbelievable Security Gap That Allowed Crooks To Get In Position

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Catching a bullet on photo in air requires such a high level of techincal timing and expertise that it could only occur by luck and probably with the aid of having the camera set up to take repeated photos at a fast rate, with all the settings in the most favorable to capture high speeds and clear images.

Nothing in my mind is suspect about a photographer with expensive top tier equipment at any event, sports, political rallies, etc. because anything can happen. I’d venture this cameraman took nonstop photos and just got really lucky. Seemingly natural course of events, cameraman there in front row with excellent gear, shots ring out, he’s going to do what he’s trained to do, get in position and take as many pictures as possible to capture the event. He got lucky (right time and place and reaction) and produced two of the most iconic pictures in history. I bet he also has a pile of less interesting ones too.

No way he could have “timed” it to catch a bullet in flight. Professional shooters and photographers who capture these shots on controlled ranges and synching trigger pulls, measuring distances, etc. often have great difficulty even when they control all of the variables.

Humanly impossible to “time” it given the randomness of it with no control over any of the variables (caliber, distance, time, syncing, etc.).

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Chris, I saw a video of yours explaining the 2nd shooter might have been in the ceiling space of the Building and shot out one of the vents. As an Architect here are a few thoughts. Those vents are for air circulation though the attic unoccupied space and they are fixed not being able to be closed or open. They are fixed open to allow air to enter the attic space and there would be a roof vent that sucks the air out. Also the ceiling is a suspended acoustical material that no one can stand or sit or lie on. If the shooter was in that space they would have had to set up some plywood spanning between the the steel joist roof framing. This would take some doing but is possible. The plywood would need to be cut to fit into the steel bar joists. This seems like a good option as they would never be detected in that space and could as you said just wait it out until everyone left. Also the small area to shoot out of might be the reason the real shooter missed. Just some comments that I wanted to add.

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I’m linking this guy’s video because it’s the first one I saw which captured the bulk of the body camera footage - https://youtu.be/0sdFxsCiyh8?si=vhyH4CVMR34NYADl

I just want to put my thoughts down because it’s been bugging me.

So we see the officer “confront” Crooks on the roof, in the small amount of time (maybe 5 seconds) he had to get a good look up there, he was able to get a full visual of Crooks, his backpack carrying extra mags, and the rifle (long-gun) and he remembers that for later after his body camera audio turns on. After Crooks points a long-gun at the officer, the officer then jumps down and he starts to run towards his patrol car, but he goes past it into a wide open field only equipped with his pistol. Again the bad guy here has a long-gun and the high ground. I understand that having the high ground is not always an advantage, but in this particular context, I think it is to a certain extent, especially given the circumstance of low ground + pistol vs high ground + rifle. Anyways the officer continues to walk in the open field searching for Crooks, but when he hears shots go off, the guy THEN decides to sprint to his patrol car and get his rifle. By the time he’s finished setting everything up and he’s ready to confront a threat with a long-gun (he has the mag in, rifle on a sling around him, taking “cover” behind his car) the officer has spent almost 2 full minutes wasting time since he jumped down from the roof. Had he immediately ran to his car, and still had to fiddle with the rifle the way he did, he probably would’ve had ~15 seconds left until shots rang out, he could’ve easily ran back into the open field like his heart desired and try to look for the threat. But what happens once he has his rifle on and he’s ready to rock? He walks back in the opposite direction he originally ran to and now walks into the parking lot back near the spot he originally tried to climb up.

I know I’m being an armchair quarterback here and I have no combat experience, so how can I possibly know what are the correct decisions to make under stress? But I’m sorry, this shit just doesn’t make sense to me. How does this guy waste so much time, and then only AFTER he hears gunshots, he begins making the correct decisions? Did another spike in his stress level like…idk, shock his brain/system back into normal and he started thinking clearly again??

I can’t make sense of it in my head. I keep replaying the parts, I keep asking myself “dude why would you do this here, only for like 2 mins later do the correct thing??”. I hope we get more footage and some officer testimonies on why they did what they did, because as time goes on this entire case makes less and less sense for it not to be some sort of a conspiracy. TOO many things have gone conveniently wrong. I get people make mistakes, but way too many people made mistakes in such a short window of time.

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MUST See cop car footage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2ztRxkjEzo 1
shows some else on the roof cast a shadow across the cop cars dash cam blocking the sun for a moment as they pass immediately after the kit shot at 0:08

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Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting your Architect’s perspective. Your comment about the roof support structures helps to understand how they could support themself. Now it’s a matter of finding the hole if in fact that’s the location. Everything else, access and escape, can certainly be explained.

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At the beginning that video appears to be from a dashcam, perhaps when he first pull up (?). It doesn’t have timestamps, either. Interesting.

Edit: You can hear shots 1-9 at the start, so that must be from when he went back into his vehicle to get his rifle. Yet this mashup video shows him running to his vehicle just after the shots are fired, to retrieve his rifle. His dashcam video must have been running the whole time. Hmm.

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Just the way their editing is done to jump-cut to another point in time. Watch the rest of the video, the effect is all over the place

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Agreed the rest of the video spicing makes it difficult.
My main concern is if that dashcam footage from 0:00 to 0:10 is raw and unadulterated in any way then the audio on it becomes the time stamp and suggests an upright figure has passed between the sun and the dashcam within a second of shot 8 or 9 and I don’t think its Crooks.

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That was also right when the door was opened. Could it be from a power draw of the vehicle’s circuitry? It doesn’t appear the vehicle was running.

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Thats not how dashcams work. I install CCTV amounst other things and the camera has a small internal power storage capacitor that smooths out irregiular supply voltage which is more likley in 12v vehicle systems so its anticipated in the design. Besides an interior light coming on is a very small current draw on the cars 12v system.

Thinking outside the box, the dash cam frames at shadow passing don’t seem to block the light as much as the suns light seems to flash brightly for a frame or two. I’m out on a limb here suggesting the cam may have caught Crook’s spirit leaving his body. Food for thought?

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Thanks for the clarification.

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This is a very important video posted by Butler Eagle on August 9, 2024: https://youtu.be/sxR76yrJO-A

In this video we have plenty of audio material about verbal and radio communication between the responding law enforcement officers.
Check it out.

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Could it be that Crooks made it obvious that he was observed? Greg Nicole and the other overwatch snipers as well as the two SS snipers on the roofs behind Trump should be the first ones interviewed.

  1. The overlook sniper that went off duty reported to his two colleagues in the overlook building about 4:27 p.m. that Crooks “knows you are up there”. So questions:

A. Why did Crooks intentionally plant himself right below the snipers (probably Greg Nicol) so his picture could be taken???

B. Why did Crooks then (if he did) take out a range finder right in the site of the sniper(s) (probably Nicol)?

C. Why did Nicol not simply open a window at some point and say to Crooks, “stop and remain where you are”?

D. Why did Nicol wait 1/2 hour to send the photos he had taken up the chain of command?

E. Why can’t the local law enforcement get their story straight about whether two snipers left their posts or only one etc?

F. Greg Smith (red hair and visor) who I believe is 100% credible has said in two separate interviews that a sniper in the overlook building (with a tattoo) was in that building “while the shooting was going on.”). Greg doesn’t want to be further involved as I understand it (and neither would I want to be given that he is telling a story very very inconsistent with the one that local law enforcement (including Paris) is telling.

G. Conveniently, a sniper (maybe Nicol) says at 6:02 that he sees Crooks headed towards Sheetz. Is it possible that Nicol knew that while Crooks was headed to the back of the building, he knew Crooks could not get to Sheetz but rather was going to be in a dead end (convenienty then most law enforcement go to the back of the building to look for him??).

H. What was Crooks looking at on his phone?? It makes no sense that he was tracking when Trump would be brought out as he could hear the rally announcements. It makes no sense (as I’ve heard reported???) that he was looking a porn??? What was Crooks doing for 4 minutes between 6:02 and 6:06 when a camera spots him crawling on the roof? It can’t possibly have taken 4 minutes to crawl to and on the roof (but maybe so)?

I. At 6:08:20 local law enforcement reports Crooks on the roof. When you compare the video of Crooks running “accross the roofs” with the SpaGuy drone footage, it’s clear (to me) that from about 6:08:20 until about 6:08:40 ish that the SS North facting sniper team should have seen him running up right quickly on the roofs! Remember that the footage of him running is shot much lower than SS sniper team north was positioned. How did SS north not see him??? My guess: they did (see next)

J. I beleive we have footage of SS Sniper team South turning to face north about 6:09 pm. That would make sense because SS North team probably radioed the “team” that he had just observed the guy running on the roofs (should have been obvious he was NOT a friendly–he had a book bag and he wasn’t dressed like law enforcement).

K. Based on yesterday’s body cam, it appears that Crooks was spotted by the law enforcement guy who climbed on the “roof” about 30 seconds before shooing starts. He observed him “next to the book bag” (which was at the bottom of the roof. Does anyone really believe this nerd then had the calmness and coolness to climb to the top of the roof and aim and fire three well directed shots in those 25-30 seconds??? Maybe a trained sniper of military guy, not Crooks. Also, remember the videos of him crawling on the roof; he seems to be having a lot of trouble staying low and climbing--------I can’t believe he did all of the above in 25 seconds.

Other observations:

Why was there no sound on the first part of yesterday’s body cam? Is it possible (contrary to what Paris says, that no communications came from local law enforcement to SS in those critical 30 seconds or so) that in fact, that officer did in fact call into “command” as soon as if “fell” and those involved don’t want to explain why SS did not act at that point to get Trump off the stage?

So much does not make sense. Instead of the Fake Bureau of Investigtion interviewing 140 people, they should be investigating the 5 snipers referenced above and sharing all of the information with the public. Obviously that “sharing” will never happen.

Why can’t Congress figure out how to ask these questions and get those 5 guys in front of a hearing? I know Ron Rowe your boat says he will produce them immediately but yet two weeks have gone by.

Why has SS not talked to local law enforcement in doing the SS investigation–answer, becuase they know that SS is to blame and maybe they don’t want to know the answers to what the three overlook snipers were or were not doing

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Okay, someone might think it was a golf range finder. The guy is golf player.
But no. His dress was a provocation. See, I’m a shooter. Obviously.
He was right at the limit of recognition to be a threat.
What else should have he had in his hand, a smoking gun perhaps?

I strongly beleive he had internal assistance.
That was a part of the game. As if he just had said: I’m here and let me go onto the roof.

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He was dressed the same as the undercover guys ie ZZtop and the other two. They all had shorts and Tshirts on so Crooks may have looked like and under cover guy at at leaset created doubt in a snipers mind especialy if the breif was that ther was going to be someone stationed up on that roof.

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Depends. One facility I worked at, literally had a solid surface between floors. IRC it was only about 3’ high crawl space, and not sure why they had done that, but it was there. Suspended ceiling was only a couple of inches below the underside of the false floor.

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I also wondered how a ceiling crawl space sniper could support himself, until an architect mentioned possibly sliding planks in the metal roof joists, based on typical metal building contruction.

images (4)

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Do you know the sniper’s are telling the truth? No, you do not…

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the Police Activity YouTube channel has released their own compilation of all the available dashcam, bodycam, and audio into one 45 min video

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If anyone has a copy of the POV from the south western rooftop counter snipers, near the retaining pond, could you please share it here? I know I’ve seen it online but cannot locate it.

I’m curious to verify if they had any good angle or visual on the 2 story northernmost AGR rooftop or if it was obscured by trees, poles, or the closer 2 story AGR building.

Thank you.