Attempted assassination of Donald Trump 13 July 2024

[brihard]

Which may or may give credence to the USSS sniper thinking the shooter might have been local law enforcement.

Yeah, if they were expecting local LE on that roof he may have been trying to reconcile that expectation with the person he saw.

 

[dimsum]

So this bit of the article below (highlights mine) are interesting.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/14/politics/corey-comperatore-trump-shooting-victim/index.html

Helen Comperatore told the New York Post she and Corey were childhood sweethearts and about to celebrate their 29th wedding anniversary when the family headed to the rally to support Trump.

“Me and the kids were all there as a family,” she said. “He was just excited. It was going to be a nice day with the family.”

Describing her late husband to the newspaper as a “simple man,” Helen Comperatore said he put “his wife and kids first all the time.”

“I didn’t lift a finger,” she said. “He did everything.”

She also told the New York Post President Joe Biden did try to call, but she doesn’t want to speak to him. “My husband was a devout Republican, and he would not have wanted me to talk to him.”

However, Helen Comperatore added she does not hold the current president responsible for what happened to her family.

“I don’t have any ill-will towards Joe Biden,” she said. “I’m not one of those people that gets involved in politics. I support Trump, that’s who I’m voting for, but I don’t have ill-will towards Biden.”

“He didn’t do anything to my husband. A 20-year-old despicable kid did,” she continued.

The family has not heard from the former president, she added.

1. “Devout” [insert party here] sounds wrong. One shouldn’t be a devout member of a political party - that smacks of “religion”
2. Even though the guy died in the rally, the family has not heard from Trump but Biden reached out to them.

Point 1 is a big reason why the divide is so entrenched.

 

[OldSolduer]

Yeah, if they were expecting local LE on that roof he may have been trying to reconcile that expectation with the person he saw.

I am not well versed in this sort of thing but should there been a sweep of the area prior to his arrival? Or maybe a sharpshooter SME going around pointing out possible fire positions? A legit question

 

[medicineman]

One female agent couldn't re-holster her weapon for one. They looked unable to function under stress.

Also, shouldn't agents be larger than the person they are protecting? Trump is what, 6-2/6-3?

Watch the whole thing...it's relevant to the above.

 

[Quirky]

 

[dimsum]

So, what’s your opinion on women fighter pilots then?

 

[Booter]

Little embarrassing that the Butler SWAT CS team was in the building… I guess they where on lunch break

Good lord.

 

[brihard]

Good lord.

If true, we have the new archetype for “you had one job”.

 

[The Bread Guy]

(...)

1. “Devout” [insert party here] sounds wrong. One shouldn’t be a devout member of a political party - that smacks of “religion”
2. Even though the guy died in the rally, the family has not heard from Trump but Biden reached out to them.

Point 1 is a big reason why the divide is so entrenched.

And like it or not, point 2 shows a big difference between the two politicians. I'm kinda surprised that, even if POTUS45 himself may be shaken up and/or busy with the convention, that SOMEONE from Team Trump didn't reach out.

 

[KevinB]

I am not well versed in this sort of thing but should there been a sweep of the area prior to his arrival? Or maybe a sharpshooter SME going around pointing out possible fire positions? A legit question

That building was supposed to have the local SWAT snipers on it.

In the advance, those sorts of positions are noted and supposed to be occupied. Due to the team limits it was assigned to the locals. There is conflicting information as to if they came down due to the heat, or they took a lunch break - either way the local team left their position and gave the shooter relatively unfettered access to the roof.

 

[Kirkhill]

When we moved to Indiana one of the first things we noticed was the number of cruisers and the multiple uniforms and agencies that showed up at every car chase.

Co-ordination has to be a bastard.

 

[KevinB]

When we moved to Indiana one of the first things we noticed was the number of cruisers and the multiple uniforms and agencies that showed up at every car chase.

Co-ordination has to be a bastard.

Working on some mixed Task Forces, my cardinal rule is Distrust and Verify.

 

[Remius]

So, what’s your opinion on women fighter pilots then?

Depends on how accurately they can holster their firearm after a dogfight.

Indépendance day also has a scene with a guy that throws his plane in front of the president to save him. As long as the can holster after doing that they should be fine.

Pretty sure he wasn’t the size of a linebacker but maybe we need larger planes.

 

[TacticalTea]

That building was supposed to have the local SWAT snipers on it.

In the advance, those sorts of positions are noted and supposed to be occupied. Due to the team limits it was assigned to the locals. There is conflicting information as to if they came down due to the heat, or they took a lunch break - either way the local team left their position and gave the shooter relatively unfettered access to the roof.

Or, like the sniper who was likely told not to engage, were told to come down.

Which, to me sounds vastly more credible than "oh, hum I know we're supposed to protect the most viscerally hated person in the world, but I forgot my sandwich downstairs". Comically absurd.

@Remius perhaps you were right after all.

Anyway here's the montage we were all waiting for, incidentally showing the shooter's presence was known well in advance:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1812731727053488418

@KevinB as you said, interagency work: distrust and verify. Whether or not the USSS was officially responsible for that rooftop is irrelevant. The buck stops with them. They chose to trust blindly and close their eyes instead. People died.

Many of us on this forum have done similar work. This shit would not fly for any of us had we been in charge. I must say I grow tired of the excuses regularly made here for systems that get people killed or empty platitudes like "defense has to succeed 100% of the time, offense only 1 time", when the failure came down to such a glaring and catastrophically stupid series of "mistakes".

Blaming comms is juvie type stuff. You're the USSS, you're telling me you haven't had time to develop a functional system in the 61 years between JFK and Trump's assassinations? Because yes, for all intents and purposes, as far as the USSS is concerned, Trump has been assassinated. Saved only by the heavenly voice of Shinzo Abe, or whatever.

Take responsibility, coordinate, and implement redundancies. Put a drone up in the air, for Pete's sake, it's 2024.

No excuses.

 

[jackamela]

That building was supposed to have the local SWAT snipers on it.

In the advance, those sorts of positions are noted and supposed to be occupied. Due to the team limits it was assigned to the locals. There is conflicting information as to if they came down due to the heat, or they took a lunch break - either way the local team left their position and gave the shooter relatively unfettered access to the roof.

You think they decided to take a lunch break ........ during Trump's speech??

If so, it makes the notion that they "did their job" rather a hard one to defend, doesn't it.

Mighty fortuitous for the shooter, in that case... and darned handy that they left the ladder in position.

What are the odds?

 

[Remius]

Or, like the sniper who was likely told not to engage, were told to come down.

Which, to me sounds vastly more credible than "oh, hum I know we're supposed to protect the most viscerally hated person in the world, but I forgot my sandwich downstairs". Comically absurd.

@Remius perhaps you were right after all.

Anyway here's the montage we were all waiting for, incidentally showing the shooter's presence was known well in advance:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1812731727053488418

@KevinB as you said, interagency work: distrust and verify. Whether or not the USSS was officially responsible for that rooftop is irrelevant. The buck stops with them. They chose to trust blindly and close their eyes instead. People died.

Many of us on this forum have done similar work. This shit would not fly for any of us had we been in charge. I must say I grow tired of the excuses regularly made here for systems that get people killed or empty platitudes like "defense has to succeed 100% of the time, offense only 1 time", when the failure came down to such a glaring and catastrophically stupid series of "mistakes".

Blaming comms is juvie type stuff. You're the USSS, you're telling me you haven't had time to develop a functional system in the 61 years between JFK and Trump's assassinations? Because yes, for all intents and purposes, as far as the USSS is concerned, Trump has been assassinated. Saved only by the heavenly voice of Shinzo Abe, or whatever.

Take responsibility, coordinate, and implement redundancies. Put a drone up in the air, for Pete's sake, it's 2024.

No excuses.

Right about what?

 

[Jarnhamar]

What are the odds?

Some might say the same odds of Epsteines cameras not working, the guards falling asleep (or whatever they did) and an abundance of bed linen being left in his cell by accident.

 

[jackamela]

Some might say the same odds of Epsteines cameras not working, the guards falling asleep (or whatever they did) and an abundance of bed linen being left in his cell by accident.

Reports vary, but I think it may have been one bathroom break and the other falling asleep. May have been a security camera outage also, I'm not sure.

Either way, this is approaching that level of credibility.

Not sure if this is true - but there are TV reports that the US SS Director has said that decision was made not to put someone on the roof which was ultimately used by the sniper because...... it had a "sloped roof" and was thus dangerous because, you know, someone might get hurt.

Frankly, unbelievable.

 

[brihard]

I could totally see that being a ‘roll the dice and it happens occasionally’ screwup. Halfway through a thus-far secure and peaceful major event with a large multiagency presence, intersecting and overlapping boundaries, and everyone thinking someone else has it covered? Yeah, it’s an unforgivable screwup, but I also see how it could happen given the right mix of complacency and arrogance. It shouldn’t, but gaps in coverage at major events happen somewhat regularly and are practically always caught and remedied by someone on the ground noticing it and moving a member to plug the gap, with nothing further coming of it.

The jurisdictional gaps are an inevitable reality. Close protection focused units have limited resources and an extremely high demand on them, especially during a campaign. Clearly there needs to be more shift to Kev’s ‘distrust but verify’ when working multi-agency.

Now, a team coming down from the roof for lunch/cause it’s very hot? Should have had a positive handoff of the space to someone else- a relief in place. If that’s what happened (or I guess didn’t), someone needs to be fired.

 

[Brad Sallows]

So it ends up where most safety/security investigations end up: someone skipped something out.