One of the shots that helped take out would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks came from a law-enforcement sniper nearly 450 yards away, special operations experts told Blaze News.
Evidence of the 448-yard shot was submitted to the U.S. Secret Service shortly after Crooks was killed, according to two elite experts who have frequently served in security missions globally. They are often called on to train snipers for the Secret Service, SWAT and sniper teams at many federal agencies, and tactical teams at state and local law-enforcement agencies.
The sources expressed a firm belief that the much-closer snipers stationed about 150 yards away just behind the speaker’s platform did not kill Crooks. When Crooks fired his first shot at Trump, one of those snipers visibly flinched, took his eye from the scope and raised his head. When he returned to the rifle, the barrel was aimed too low for the trajectory needed to hit the gunman.
Those actions, the experts said, are indicative of what they consider a “B-Team” or even “C-Team” sniper. Top-tier “A-Team” operators don’t flinch at the sound of a rifle’s report, they said.
The two snipers on the barn behind Trump appeared to be using .308 caliber Remington model 700 bolt-action variants, according to a special operations source who spoke exclusively with Blaze News.
Those are not the types of rifles used by the Secret Service “A-Team” snipers. For normal operations, Secret Service snipers use semi-automatic .308 rifles such as the Knights Armament Co. SR-25 or a high-quality AR-10 variant that has interchangeability with the SR-25. For long-range operations, they use bolt-action .338 Lapua Magnum rifles, the source said.
The sources, speaking anonymously because they are not part of the official shooting investigation, showed Blaze News visual evidence, including telemetry data from the sniper’s rifle, indicating the distance and the 10 mph wind blowing at the time of the shot.
It is not known whether the three bullet wounds observed on Crooks’ body after death came from the same sniper or multiple shooters, the sources said. One of the rounds struck Crooks in the left side of the face.
A local SWAT team found the building that Crooks fired from completely empty.
Erik D. Prince, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and founder of the private military firm Blackwater, expressed a similar view on X (formerly Twitter): The would-be assassin was struck from 448 yards.
“The fact that USSS [Secret Service] allowed a rifle-armed shooter within 150 yards to a pre-planned event is either malice or massive incompetence,” Prince wrote. “Clearly there was adequate uncontrolled dead space for a shooter to move into position and take multiple aimed shots.”
It is not clear which agency the sniper worked for. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said it was one of her agents who fired the bullet that killed Crooks. “Secret Service personnel on the ground moved quickly during the incident, with our counter sniper team neutralizing the shooter,” Cheatle said in a statement July 15.
The FBI and police sources said Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania — described as a loner who was incessantly bullied in high school — climbed onto the roof of Building 6 at the American Glass Research complex and fired an AR-15 round that pierced Trump’s right ear, nearly ending the former president’s life.
The well-attended rally on the fairgrounds of Butler Farm Show Inc. was brought to an abrupt and tragic halt when Crooks opened fire from the roof of a single-story manufacturing building, killing retired firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50, and seriously wounding two others in the crowd.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, suspected shooter at Trump rally, reportedly had explosives in his car and residence (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Crooks suffered at least three gunshot wounds after he opened fire on President Trump and the surrounding crowd, according to a Blaze News source with direct knowledge of tactical operations at the Butler site.
The source said a SWAT team based in Butler County cleared the inside of the building on which Crooks was perched when he fired his rifle. Contrary to a statement issued by Cheatle, there were no Secret Service or other law enforcement officers inside the building, according to the same source.
Cheatle told ABC News in an interview broadcast July 15 that the roof of Building 6 was not secured because the sloped roof presented a hazard.
‘The stupidity of this statement explains so much of why s**t hit the fan that day. Absolute incompetence.’
“That building, in particular, has a sloped roof at its highest point,” Cheatle said. “And so there will be a safety factor that will be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof. And so you know the decision was made to secure the building from the inside.”
That explanation drew widespread derision on social media.
“Holy s**t. A sloped roof? That is a total BS excuse,” wrote Sean Parnell, a former Army Ranger who did combat tours in Afghanistan along the Pakistan border.
“Our snipers used to set in on mountain tops in Afghanistan,” wrote Parnell, who served in the 10th Mountain Division. “On the down slopes if need be. The stupidity of this statement explains so much of why s**t hit the fan that day. Absolute incompetence.”
A local Pennsylvania SWAT source said when SWAT officers rolled Crooks’ dead body over, they found a remote transceiver that could have been used to trigger an improvised explosive device or some other distraction device.
The shocking events on July 13 created a flurry of questions as the U.S. Secret Service scrambles to explain one of the worst security failures in United States history.
Sources interviewed by Blaze News heavily criticized the performance of the Secret Service and suggested without urgent security changes, Trump’s life will continue to be at risk as his campaign picks up steam coming out of the GOP convention in Milwaukee.
The operators interviewed by Blaze News described the attempted assassination as a many-layered, multifaceted breakdown in security so egregious it is difficult to imagine how it happened.
Crooks first drew attention from police when he passed through the screening area around 3 p.m. with a range-finder, police said. A range-finder operates in a similar manner to binoculars and is used to estimate distances for long-range rifle shots.
An officer with the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit noticed Crooks near Building 6 at about 5:30 p.m., some 41 minutes before the shooting. The officer took a photo and circulated the image to the Secret Service, according to a report in the New York Post.
Thomas Crooks was spotted by a Beaver County Emergency Services officer, who snapped this image of him about 5:30 p.m. near the shooting scene. (Beaver County Emergency Services Unit)
According to sources contacted by Blaze News, the photo was likely captured by a mast camera or an officer on high ground, although it could have been taken by a drone or helicopter. There are no indications that drones were used by law enforcement on July 13.
In the photo, Crooks has long, brown, thinning hair and glasses, and is wearing a grey T-shirt from the popular YouTube channel Demolition Ranch.
The Beaver County unit sent a team to find Crooks, but he had left the area.
The same officer spotted Crooks again at 5:45 p.m., now on the roof of Building 6. He took another photo and sent it to the command center, police said. Another account of the span before the shooting put Crooks on the roof at 6:04 p.m.
Sources interviewed by Blaze News said they believe that Crooks’ rifle might have had a suppressor, a device installed on the muzzle to mask the sound of the blast when the weapon is fired. They based that belief on the fact all of the shots sounded the same, regardless of the direction of origin.
A suppressor would require a $200 tax stamp from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the sources said.
The shots did not sound like muzzle blasts but rather the sound of the supersonic rounds passing by, the sources said. It’s also possible that the audio heard from cell phones and broadcast video had been compressed to protect the devices.
The U.S. Secret Service uses suppressors on its sniper rifles, they said.
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