Are Federal agents are botching the assassination investigation? Will this fuel conspiracy theories for years to come . . .?

Photo above - will the real Thomas Matthew Crooks please stand up . . . ?

My condolences to the relatives of the bystander who was shot, and the 2 additional injured attendees in Butler Pennsylvania. That said, there are a LOT of errors being made in this investigation.

1. Failure to secure nearby rooftops before the rally. The rooftop – 130 yards away – is approximately the same unobstructed distance that Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy and Connolly from. And they were moving targets in a motorcade. Trump was standing motionless.

2. Thomas Matthew Crooks was photographed near the entrance to the rally, avoiding entry because of the magnetometers. He was allowed to depart without being searched or questioned.

3. Attendees on the ground later noticed Crooks crawling on a nearby rooftop carrying a rifle, and alerted the police officers nearby. Either that information was not conveyed to the Secret Service, or it was ignored.

4. Immediately after the shots were fired, Crooks was killed by a single headshot even though he was not wearing body armor. An eyewitness said “they blew his head off”. From 130 yards away, Secret Service agents had the same unobstructed view of Crooks, as the assassin had of Trump.

5. The rally site was cleared almost immediately, allowing potential eyewitness to depart, without securing attendee videos or stills of the shooting. The departing attendees could also have removed evidence like shell casings, and items with fingerprints.

6. It took nearly 3 hours to disclose the shooter had been killed immediately, and that he shot 3 attendees in addition to Trump.

7. Crooks wasn’t named for an additional 8 hours. The dead and injured bystanders still have not had their names released.

8.Crooks' residence – the one he shared with his parents – wasn’t entered for 5 hours. There was a police cordon more than an hour earlier, but they did not enter. This would have given an opportunity for occupants or co-conspirators to destroy evidence.

9.There is a report that Crooks was one of 11 million subscribers to a popular YouTube gun channel. He had been wearing “hunting gear” to public school for years. But there has been no identification of which shooting range Crooks practiced at. He didn’t develop these skills by watching TV. Lee Harvey Oswald received weapons training while a US marine. Who trained Crooks?

I'm just askin' . . .

bowman81 · M

130 yds from a solid prone position is a virtual chip shot. A shooter of minimal competence should be able to keep all shots in a 5" or 6" group. At that distance wind nor trajectory are an issue. Thousands of hunters make much more difficult shots at far greater distances from less stable positions every year.

I worked with USSS when President Bill Clinton came to town. They checked, cleared and covered the high ground for 1500yds. from the speech/rally site. There is absolutely no excuse for allowing a man with a rifle to gain access to an unobstructed view of the podium.

Site assessment, planning, communications, and coordination were all a mess. Things sure have gone downhill in the past 25-30 years. This was a horrible inexcusable failure.

whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

@bowman81 Now I admit this isnt my area of expertise. So correct me if I am wrong. But doesnt a 5.56 fired from an AR 15 tend to tumble? Its that the reason some snipers still use the bigger 7.62 fired from something like older M14? So if this was a seriously planned affair, then he had an inferior weapon for the job. 😷

robb65 · 56-60, M

@whowasthatmaskedman These bullets have a reputation for tumbling AFTER they hit the target, not when they come out of the barrel. If that was the case no one would be buying/using these rifles.