LOS ANGELES.–President Donald Trump, 78, barely missed a bullet to the head, if it were not for the poor marksmanship of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks who crawled on to a nearby roof to Trump’s rally and opened fire, killing one, injuring two critically and hitting Trump with a grazing shot to the upper ear, bloodying the former president. How ironic that Crooks didn’t make the junior varsity marksman team at Bethel Park High School where, according to classmates, he didn’t make the team. While the FBI and local law enforcement search for a motive, the Secret Service must face its abysmal failure to secure an appropriate perimeter from gun violence. Eyewitness Greg reported to BBI that he saw the gunman slither up the roof of warehouse roof where for at least three minutes Butler police and the Secret Service did nothing to yank Trump off the stage before Crooks sprayed seven bullets toward Trump’s rally stage.
Greg said he did everything humanly possible to inform the Butler police and Secret Service but they ignored his loud warnings, telling them that a man with a rifle crawled up the roof. Greg said there was at least three-to-four minutes when local police or Secret Service could have intercepted Crook’s ballistic episode but didn’t do a thing. “We’re pointing at the guy crawling up the roof . .. . the police dow there running around on the ground. We’re like, “Hey man there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle’ . . . and the police were like, ‘Huh, right.” They didn’t know what was going on,” Greg told the BBC. Local police and Secret Service didn’t heed Greg’s warnings, letting the incident happen in real time. “Next thing you know, I’m thinking to myself, ‘Why is Trump still speaking? Why have the not pulled him off the stage?’ I’m standing there point at [the gunman] for, you know, two or three minutes. The Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn. I’m pointing at the roof, jus standing here like this . . . New thing you know, five shots came out,” Greg said.
Greg raises disturbing questions about the Secret Service and local law enforcement no heeding direct warnings by a innocent observer on the scene tipping the off to the emergent danger. Greg watched about the shot rang out the Secret service take Crooks out, hitting him in the head. Greg wanted to know why Secret Service were not on all roofs close to the rally venue. Greg speculated that maybe because of the roof’s slope they couldn’t seek Crooks perched in the prone position with his AR 15 ready to do his business. Whatever the security failure, the Secret Service must pay the price for not preventing obviously place sniper on a nearby roof. Greg did his best to inform the police and Secret Service but they ignored his warnings. “Why aren’t the Secret Service on the roofs?” asked Greg, questioning the security failure that led to the near miss on the former president. Trump can within millimeters of his life due to Crooks errant shot.
FBI and local authorities have enough on their place tracing the identity and back ground of Thomas Matthew Crooks. Whatever information comes out, it’s doubtful they’ll establish a clear motive, unless they get luck combing through his phone data. Crooks’s locked phone is now at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, seeking to unlock the phone. Like other teenage and post-teenage shooters, Crooks already shares much in common, a profile of a loser, loner, someone without many friends of a social life. Some classmates reported Crooks was bullied in high school for his reclusive behavior but others say he seemed like a normal kid. Crooks may have been listening to CNN or MSNBC where he heard daily how Trump plans to destroy American democracy, trash the Constitution and establish a dictatorship in the United States. With Trump demonized by the left as the next Adolf Hitler, it could have influenced Crooks trying to make sense of all the threats against Trump. No major party nominee has been demonized like former president Trump.
How ironic that 81-year-old President Joe Biden asked all Americans to tone down the violent rhetoric. But everyone knows that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris tell voters how dangerous Trump is to American democracy. A young gullible mind like Crooks could have easily been spurred to violence thinking Trump is the personification of evil. What did Biden think would happen with the White House denigrating Trump to the point he was a dangerous traitor to the United States? Biden said political violence was not acceptable in the U.S. But why would Biden, White House, House Democrats and the press say repeatedly that Trump was going to destroy American democracy? In 2020, they didn’t need that narrative because Covid-19 did Trump in due to voters fears of dying. There’s no Covid to hang on Trump in 2024, so democrats concocted the most incendiary rhetoric that a Trump presidency would destroy U.S. democracy.
U.S. Secret Service has a lot of explaining to do why, with the Butler rally venue, why they failed to cover the perimeter before a would-be assassin open fire on Trump. Trump showed the luck of the Irish dodging the bullet, only by millimeters. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, 64, should ask for the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle for the shoddy job of protecting Trump. Mayorkas should not hesitate to ask for her resignation, knowing that an eyewitness said he tipped off Secret Service that Trump’s assassin had crawled on a warehouse roof with an AR-15 assault rifle. “Why aren’t there Secret Service on all the roofs” asked Greg and eyewitness to the July 13 assassination attempt, all in plain sight of the Secret Service. No one blames the Secret Service for taking out Crooks but there’s no excuse to allowing the 20-year-old to climb on to a roof 400 feet from the stage and open fire on Trump.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma
