The shooter is a twenty-year-old from Pennsylvania.
THOMAS MATTHEW CROOKS ID’D AS GUNMAN WHO SHOT TRUMP DURING PA. RALLY
by Joe Marino & Katherine Donlevy
The gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump Saturday was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, sources told The Post.
Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pa., squeezed off shots — one of which grazed Trump in the ear — at an outdoor rally in Butler, just outside Pittsburgh.
Sources said Crooks was planted on a roof of a manufacturing plant more than 130 yards away from the stage at Butler Farm Show grounds.
He was killed by Secret Service snipers. An AR-style rifle was later recovered.
Bethel Park is a village 40 miles south of where the Butler rally was held.
Why Crooks fired on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is unclear.
(New York Post)
WITNESS SAYS HE SAW GUNMAN ON ROOF NEAR TRUMP RALLY
by Gary O'Donoghue
A man with a rifle was seen on a rooftop minutes before shots were fired at a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania, a witness has told the BBC: youtu.be/cG0qPDCWE9w?si=331MhnZ3Axi3pkEB
Greg Smith said the man had crawled on top of a building just outside the event in Butler County on Friday evening.
He said he pointed the gunman out to police.
"I'm thinking to myself 'Why is Trump still speaking, why have they not pulled him off the stage'... the next thing you know, five shots ring out."
The former president was immediately swarmed by Secret Service agents and escorted away. He was seen with blood on his face and later said a bullet had pierced his ear.
The gunman was shot dead, officials later confirmed. Mr Smith told the BBC he saw Secret Service agents shoot the man.
Mr Smith was listening from outside the rally and said he saw the gunman around five minutes into Trump's speech.
"We noticed the guy bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50ft away," he said. "He had a rifle, we could clearly see a rifle.
"We're pointing at him, the police are down there running around on the ground, we're like 'Hey man, there's a guy on the roof with a rifle'... and the police did not know what was going on."
Mr Smith said he tried to alert the authorities for three to four minutes, but thought they probably could not see the gunman because of the slope of the roof.
"Why is there not Secret Service on all of these roofs here?" he asked. "This is not a big place. "[It's a] security failure, 100% security failure."
He said he later saw the agents shoot the gunman: "They crawled up on the roof, they had their guns pointed at him, made sure he was dead. He was dead, and that was it - it was over."
Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman, said agents had "neutralised the shooter" and "quickly responded with protective measures".
The incident is being investigated as an attempted assassination.
A crowd member was killed and two others were critically injured, the service added.
Mr Smith later told the BBC his child was "crying and begging me to take him home" after the shooting.
"There were a lot of kids up there with us who were terrified, they're still terrified," he said.
Another witness who was inside the event described dropping to the ground after hearing five gunshots in quick succession.
Jason, who did not give his surname, told the BBC: "We see the Secret Service jump on Trump to protect him; everyone on the ground dropped down very quickly.
Then he "stood up and put his fist up in the air".
"He was a little bloody, his ear was bleeding. He stood up and he was alive and breathing."
An emergency department doctor at the rally told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that he treated a crowd member for a gunshot wound to the head.
"I heard the shots, I thought it was firecrackers to begin with," he said.
"Someone over there was screaming 'He's been shot, he's been shot'.
"They guy had spun around [and was] jammed between the benches."
"There was a lot of blood."
(bbc.com)
He showed great courage under fire.
The incessant coverage (only to get worse) reminds me of an old joke about betting on instant replays.
The NY Post seems to be fueling the conspiracy crowd with this statement “Sources said Crooks was planted on a roof of a manufacturing plant…”. There’s a lot of crazy theories out there already, with many more to come.
That isn’t a photo of Crooks, though there is a resemblance. It’s just some internet hoaxer who was posting photos of himself for attention.
My brother texted me yesterday, “Someone’s tried to assassinate Trump.” I simply didn’t care. Best I could reply was, “Well, that’s rude.”
A day later, everyone’s in a frenzy. Idiots are analyzing the bullets’ trajectory, reporters are digging into the life of some damned fool who accidentally killed someone he wasn’t aiming to kill. Republicans, of course, are blaming Joe Biden, because Republicans always have the dumbest response to anything.
And I still have nothing to say about it, except the obvious — killing people is bad, even if the person you’re trying to kill is stupid, mean, and hellbent on destroying America.
Trump is a symptom, not the disease. Killing him wouldn’t solve anything — someone else would take his place, and nothing much would change. Or actually, it might change things for the worse, as most Republicans are as evil as Trump but smarter.
So put your damned guns away and vote for Biden. He ain’t much, and he’s not all there, but he’s sane.
Quite a screed for someone who has nothing to say on the topic. Care to explain just how the secret service failed to prevent shots from a rooftop sniper perched a measly 150 yards from the former President? A 20 year old with daddy’s rifle just stumbled his way to his unguarded perch in broad daylight in front of a huge crowd with no guidance? Then after he was spotted with a rifle by the crowd and a police officer, the SS waited two minutes or longer for him to start shooting before they responded. Isn’t that weird? Who assigned three 5’5” women to shield and carry a 6’5” President? I thought presidential detail was comprised of the best of the best, handpicked from our military. So many security failures that day.
People should be scrutinizing this event, but you’d rather we just take your word for it and vote for decrepit joe. Sorry, but that’s pathetic.
It is odd that the AVA is still displaying a picture of the twitter/x user named ‘Jewgazing’ and calling him Crooks. I expect better vetting of sources from the AVA editor.