This is second hand. I saw someone post that on air ABC reported that a local officer saw the shooter climbing up to the roof (apparently an external ladder) and was trying to follow. The officer fell off the ladder and was injured when the shooter pointed his weapon at him. This would explain the miss at relatively short range. He was hurried.
I’m not watching live and I don’t see it online. I’ve noticed the mainstream news is much quicker to report on air than they are to post it online.
zero chance he wrote that.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20 years old. No motive so far for the shooting.2 killed(including the shooter) and 3 injured(including trump). The shooter took a shot 200 meters away from Trump with an AR15 STYLE rifle the exact gun is unknown but will probably be revealed sometime during the day. The best footage of Thomas shooting at Trump so far appears to be from BBC(who took it from another news site TMZ). You can watch that here 
Thomas Matthew Crooks: What we know about Donald Trump shooting suspect (bbc.com). Scroll to the “Did he hit anyone?” section and watch that video. Later photos of an ESU or some sort of armed unit inspect the body on the roof.
Yes. It’s a very distinctive sound.
Summary
The article was probably already written or at least in the works, and the writer just edited it a bit to fit with last night’s events.
I have very little gun exposure (compared to many others here) … but in my (mandatory) military months, we shot our 5.56 assault rifle (not an AR-16 / 15, but I assume “same ballpark”, balistically speaking) … and I was surprised that in demonstration of its capabilities, it shot straight throu a pig’s (or was it a calf’s??? - donno 30+ years ago!) - anyway the bullet went in-through-and-out of the craneo) head at 100m … so even a “measly” 5.56 has incredibly destructive power
just to add:
the pig’s head was properly sourced from a butcher … and I don’t necesarily like to link that pig-head to the trump shooting … (but feel free to make of that what you want)
Same as Oswald in 1963 I believe.
I’ve seen it reported that public records indicate Crooks was registered as a Republican but he also once donated to the Progressive Turnout Project, a Democratic-aligned voter turnout organization.
I think ultimately whatever political leanings this young man may have professed are going to be confused and contradictory and are likely more a symptom of his state of mind than a driver for his actions.
The donation might have been his dad, who has nearly the same name. This guy would have been 16 when the donation was made.
I’m not a ballistics expert by any means. 5.56 isn’t a big bullet but it is a proper rifle round. It’s moving very fast compared to a pistol. Even though it’s not suited for long range shooting it does cause a lot of damage.
5.56mm NATO and .223 cal are the same size. The rounds aren’t exactly the same. 5.56mm has a higher chamber pressure. Rifles designed for 5.56 have a slightly different chamber size. You can shoot .223 in a 5.56 rifle but it’s not recommended to shoot 5.56 in a .223 rifle. I assume .223cal is more prevalent on the civilian market because the ammo is easier to find and cheaper.
The FEC filing lists the donor as “Thomas Crooks” whereas I believe his dad’s name is Matthew. But yeah, who knows.
Reuters is reporting it as a donation coming from the shooter with no hint that it was the father.
5 posts were split to a new topic: Law enforcement on roofs for political rallies, Did they have any right to be there?
From CNN:
Man killed in Trump assassination attempt identified as firefighter Corey Comperatore
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro confirmed the man who was killed at Saturday’s rally is state resident Corey Comperatore and that he dove on his family to protect them as shots were fired at former President Donald Trump.
“I just spoke to Corey’s wife and Corey’s two daughters,” Shapiro said. “Corey was a girl dad. Corey was a firefighter. Corey went to church every Sunday. Corey loved his community. Most especially, Corey loved his family.”
Shapiro described Comperatore as an “avid supporter of the former president” and that he was excited to be at the rally.
“I asked Corey’s wife if it would be okay for me to share that we spoke. She said yes. She also asked that I share with all of you that Corey died a hero,” Shapiro continued. “Corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally,” he said.
Shapiro said “all leaders need to take down the temperature and rise above the hateful rhetoric that exists and search for a better brighter future for this nation.”
As I learned in physics classes, force equals mass times acceleration. So if the caliber isn’t very big you just push it faster.
I heard that the ActBlue donation was made right after Biden was elected. Makes me wonder if he had a bet with someone that Trump would win, and the $15 donation was the pay out.
Or if someone made the donation in his name as a “fuck you” after they had a political argument.
Rifle bullets are usually supersonic, so you’d definitely hear something as they go past.
In this case, Trump would have heard at least three sounds: The sonic boom of the bullet, the sound of the shattering teleprompter, and the sound of the shot actually being fired, all in rapid succession. At almost the same time as those, he also felt a sudden pain in his face, and felt the Secret Service agents throwing him to the floor. That’s a lot to take in all at once. I would expect that anyone’s after-the-fact account of an incident like that to be somewhat muddied.
My guess as to how the result of the investigation here turns out:
- Trump is not president yet (in fact, not even formally the nominee) and doesn’t have the same Secret Service resources as a sitting president would have. This is just a practical matter, it would not be feasible to give every candidate the same enormous protective bubble that goes with the president.
- Particularly at this stage, the Secret Service relies on state and local police for a security perimeter. Someone was nominally responsible for maintaining security in the area of those buildings, but it was a bored local cop in the parking lot.
- The counter-sniper team was aware that there was a suspicious person on that roof and that there was chatter about it on the radio, and was watching what was happening through their scopes, but didn’t have positive ID of the person and/or couldn’t clearly see a weapon, and weren’t going to shoot the guy just as a precaution.
- Only once the person actually opened fire did the severity of the situation become clear and the counter-sniper team took him out immediately.
I also note that there is what sounds like a single gunshot audible on the videos several seconds after the initial exchange, and someone starts screaming immediately afterwards. Haven’t seen much discussion of that, I wonder if there is some other aspect that hasn’t been made public yet.
At one point in my 20s, I had a deal with my therapist that I’d either do some tasks I wasn’t motivated to complete, or I’d donate $100 to the opposing party. I completed the tasks, but I was a very functional adult.