I ran across Max Wittlinger when I was looking for Bearded Volcom Shirt Guy. From what I can tell, Wittlinger is a detective, and I can’t find any indication he’s a member of ESU.
Here’s a video with his face from a few years ago. Woman added inmate boyfriend to restaurant’s payroll, police say – WPXI
The reason, I think, is pretty clear - that SS defined their positions to be inside windows. This is in the pre-action portion of the post-action report. This suggests that SS set up local snipers for failure, because the windows were narrow, and sniper would be 2-3 feet behind window.
Many other “coincidences” mentioned already cement the thesis that SS handicapped local and SS snipers, chiefly in regard to the sabotaged communication. But one in particular is that a local policeman a few days before the rally asked SS to post people on the roof, SS never did.
The fact that SS handicapped local ESU snipers by so positioning does not erase the latter’s responsibility for the attempted assassination. They may have left their posts; if they did not, they must have overheard and seen the bystanders below verbally calling police about Crooks on the roof with a rifle. That they did not take out Crooks on the roof before any shots were fired is certainly their fault too.
Well, this makes me think I’d love to have either internal security video at AGR, and/or door logs. I think if they have a keycard system, they should have logs about when doors were opened, and whether it was from inside or outside.
It’s clear that visibility of all of AGR 6’s roof is available only when Crane’s camera is right at the window frame, turned sideways. A sniper behind a long rile with the muzzle set 1 ft or so behind the window frame had only a very narrow angle of view - maybe nothing at all of the roof. He’d be 12.5 in (window to muzzle) + 35 in (muzzle to scope) = almost 50 inches behind the window frame, if at the scope … even farther back if just sitting behind the buttstock.
On the other side of the story, even if the lone remaining sniper was facing entirely the wrong way and looking out the West window on the second floor, you know what he’d be seeing and hearing?
A raft of people pointing to the roof to his left and he’d be hearing them clear as day because the window he’s looking through is open.
Not too terribly involved to move from there to one of the side windows I would imagine and look over toward Crooks.
There are two different warnings over radio about suspect on the roof.
The first one was around 6:08:20 and called out by the “water-tower” policeman of [Dropbox video 5] but says nothing about a rifle (Dropbox).
The next one from a different source, the boosted cop’s, seems to be at 8:11:03 and adds the detail about the rifle.
Neither warning is recorded by bodycams, which at those moments were recording only video, but one can see their arms move and presume grabbing radio; and those moments align with Sen Ron Johnson’s timeline.
Right, this suggests that from about 6:10:30 on there were no snipers in the 2nd floor, or any in there was/were listening to music, or else LIHOP.
They knew a suspect with a range finder had been out for a while, knew his looks, knew he had just been spotted (supposedly by BC post-action report), and people below were calling out cops about a man on the roof with a rifle. So any snipers there should have been on trigger-alert and with ears wide open to any radio comms (and hence bystander voices).
The Butler Township Commissioner stated that only 9 of their officers were supporting the rally, and they were all doing traffic control.
Even if all in this social post is true, it’s worth asking why is this info arriving only now and whom does it benefit? It benefits SS, as it paints local police as headless and uncoordinated, providing a rationale for the attempted assassination that would be easy to accept, and exculpate SS completely.
But by now we know many facts that point otherwise. Specifically, the total contrast between local LEO and SS chiefs:
Local LEO was diligent in communicating out suspect with rangefinder, suspect lurking around, suspect on the roof, suspect on the roof with rifle, etc., - Greg Nicol being the exception as to smart diligence.
SS chiefs handicapped both local and SS snipers by the definition of posts, rejection of drone, rejection of local radio, rejection of local embed in SS command, rejection of morning meeting, only slowly and dilutedly passing on info about Crooks to SS snipers, …
“Someone’s on the roof,” a local officer radioed at 6:08 p.m. “I have someone on the roof with white shorts.”
Inside the local command, Lenz radioed to clarify that the person on the roof was not a police officer.
“We do not have assets on the roof,” he said. “That is not us.”Inside the local command, Lenz radioed to clarify that the person on the roof was not a police officer.
“Lost sight of him, trooper was chasing him, trying to follow him around the building,” the officer said.
“Last time I seen him was by the pine tree between the two buildings, the small walkway joining the buildings,” the officer who earlier spotted Crooks on the roof reported at 6:10 p.m.
source Washington Post transcribed Radio coms
i will just make a note on the quality of radio coms description of events…if you compare a vehicle patrol officer coms in pursuit of a subject they give clear and precise description of exactly where they are, the direction they are heading, a description of what they are seeing and what the suspect is doing…this is not only for evidence to use in court, but is to give a clear description for any other Leo officer responding to the scene…nothing like that occurred here…
just a thought.
There is no need to be on the scope of he hasn’t got a target. He is free to move around.
Exactly how is someone like Chris going to force any of them to sit for an interview? What not nice things are you going to do?
Ok, this means that SS agent in charge of these things are implicated. Definitely not incompetence, too many things, definitely malfeasance!
Now we need to pin down who that was and what locals were also involved.
There had to be something that stopped the officers on level 2 from acting. We can rule out incompetence.
They were either drawn away or they were deliberately staying out of it. My guess is that at least one of them was LIHOP. Probably the only person we haven’t identified.
i dont understand the statement about the riffle and use of scope…thats obviously not what happened or is the job when you are overwatch at an event…we know they used binoculars and they would only use them if something draws their eyes, otherwise your job is to observe everything and report anything suspicious so that it can be investigated…the thought that they man their riffle and only look through the scope is obviously not what happened or would be expected…
Solid logic. Add to this the fact that the sniper who departed around 4:25 texted to say that he (Crooks) “knows you are up there.” https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/beaver_and_butler_county_snipers_assigned_to_agr_building_id_gunman_as_suspicious_person_redacted.pdf
I don’t know for sure if that was Crooks.
Crooks didn’t park there did he?
It seemed like Crooks parked at the Sheetz and walked in.
We should try to get confirmation on this.
They released it as if it was Crooks, but it could have been someone else who just happened to park in either of the AGR lots too. (Small lot on west side, larger lot on east)
Keep in mind, that was quite some time before the 2nd story snipers took a picture of Crooks and sent it out.
Great thinking Chris, and the real sniper is inside. Greg locks the door. Greg facilitates the real weapon existing the building “nothing to see here” and the real sniper is the person casually sitting on the picnic table.
I agree with you. Other reasons why from observations but rather not explain here, wish had better direct way to communicate. Hang in there.
at the moment what we hear is Crooks walked in, the car and bike are just obsevations made of what could be suspicious…and thats good work on their behalf…we can see from the Nicol photos he was watching the area in front of his window…and then taking photos of anything that caught his attention…not just Crooks under his window, but the groups by the fence under the tree…i am guessing he had dozens and dozens of photos on his phone from the event…
it does turn out that the person Woods had seen at the picnic table as he left was Crooks…but at the time that was all he was…a person sitting at the picnic table…if it wasnt for the car, he may not have even mentioned him.
