3 Seconds Between Trump Assassin Attack and Counter-Sniper Kill
Written by Chriss W. Street
There were only three seconds between the Trump assassin’s first shot and the Secret Service counter-sniper team’s head shot instantly killed the suspect. The counter-sniper team clearlyidentified the armed person as a threat and was communicating with their supervisor, who must have denied the shot under new“rules of engagement.”
American political campaign events use sophisticated magnetometers to prevent guns from being brought into the spectator areas, and have uniformed and non-uniformed security personal milling around to cover the stage and the spectator seating.
Counter-snipers on rooftops are usually assigned 300 Winchester Magnum single-shot rifles with up to 30 times scopes to neutralize threats at distances of at least 500-1,000 yards. They tend to shoot Sierra Match King Hollow Point Boat Tail bullets that travel at a velocity of 2,850 feet per second. For counter-snipers to hit targets at 1,000 yards, the weapon would be set to shoot sixty-five feet above the target due to gravity.
Thomas Matthew Crooks was observed for about 15 minutes by visitors to the Trump rally as he exited a white van dressed in tan camo pants and carrying a long rifle with what appeared to be a 30 round “banana clip.” Spectators were screaming at law enforcement after a man with a rifle calmly crossed the field to a building alcove, where he climbed a pre-positioned ladder to an unguarded roof and laid down.
Spectators noticed that two counter-snipers were looking through binoculars at the building roof and the spectators noticed there was a person laying down on a roof top just outside a perimeter fence that was just 100 yards from the stage.
It has been confirmed that a police officer responded to spectatorscreams about a man with a gun on the roof by climbing the ladder and confronting the armed suspect. Reports state that theassassin aimed his rifle at the policeman, who then retreated.
The counter-snipers responded to the assassin’s first shot by taking firing positions. One sniper jumped into a prone position on the roof, while the other sniper with a tripod mounted weapon took a knee and sighted the weapon.
Counter-snipers would never expect a situation like the Trump rally, where they would be expected to engage a target at 150 yards. With their scopes set at 20 times magnification, a close-in target would be magnified in their scopes to the size of a nose.
The kneeling counter-sniper with the tripod at the Trump rally, sighted his scoped weapon. But because of the unexpectedly short distance to the target, he had to lift his head up to frame the target before taking a single shot that killed the assassin.
RealClearPolitics White House & National Political Correspondent Susan Crabtree confirmed on Twitter that the Secret Service did not shoot until “AFTER” the assassin firedupon the former president:
“The Secret Service protocol requires that a counter sniper aware of a potential shooter to radio directly to intelligence division team to respond and investigate. In this case, the investigation may have been cut short by the shooter firing his weapon, so the counter sniper then fired as quickly as possible in return.”
The U.S. Congressional Oversight and Accountability Committee has announced that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle would appear before the panel for a hearing on the Trump assassination attempt on July 22nd
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