Police Off The Cuff/Real Crime Stories

The attempted Assassination of Former President Donald Trump.

Duration:: 1h 22m
Broadcast on:: 14 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

The Attempted Assassination of Former President Donald Trump. The former president was holding a rally when he said he was shot in his ear. Two people, including the suspected gunman, were killed and two were critically injured. A man fired “multiple shots” toward the stage during former President Donald J. Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday evening, killing one spectator and critically injuring two others, according to the Secret Service. Mr. Trump was rushed off the stage, blood visible around his right ear. He was taken to a hospital, and the Secret Service said he was “safe.” The Secret Service also said its personnel had killed the shooter, whom federal law enforcement officials identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pa. “This evening we had what we are calling an assassination attempt against our former president, Donald Trump,” Kevin Rojek, a special agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said during a news conference at the Butler Township Police Department on Saturday. Here’s what we know about the shooting. The Former President Mr. Trump ducked quickly after the shots began and as members of the crowd began to scream. Secret Service agents then rushed Mr. Trump off the stage. As he was escorted to his motorcade, Mr. Trump, whose face and right ear were bloodied, pumped his fist in a defiant gesture to the crowd. (NY Times) 💯 Join our mission to uncover the truth in crime! Support Police Off the Cuff on Patreon for exclusive content and insider access. Click now and become a part of our detective squad: https://www.patreon.com/policeoffthecuff 💬 Did you like this video? Let me know in the comments below! ✅ Subscribe to Police off the Cuff right now! Click here: https://www.youtube.com/@PoliceofftheCuff?sub_confirmation=1 Or become a YouTube Member to get access to perks here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKo80Xa1PYTc23XN_Yjp8pA/join --------------- Welcome to the Official YouTube Channel of Police off the Cuff This is where the veil of mystery on high-profile cases is lifted through the sharp insights of seasoned law enforcement professionals and where real crime meets real analysis. This is your destination for exploring the complexities of true crime stories, illuminated by the rich experience and street wisdom of those who have walked the thin blue line. At the helm is retired NYPD Sergeant Bill Cannon, a figure of authority in the crime investigation arena, with a diverse background that spans across acting, broadcasting, and academia. Bill's profound knowledge and keen analytical skills, combined with his empathetic approach, make each story not just heard but felt. Phil's extensive investigative experience, coupled with his genuine passion and characteristic Brooklyn charm, adds depth and relatability to the discussions. ➡️ Here we navigate the intricate web of the nation's most captivating crime stories, offering not just stories, but an education on the realities of criminal investigation. Their combined expertise provides a unique lens through which the stories are told, offering insights that only those with firsthand experience can provide. Join us on this journey into the heart of true crime, where every episode promises a deep dive into the minds of criminals and the tireless efforts of law enforcement to bring them to justice. --------------- 📲 Follow Police off the Cuff on social media: Instagram ▶️ https://www.instagram.com/policeoffthecuff Facebook ▶️ https://www.facebook.com/Policeoffthecuff-312794509230136/ Twitter ▶️ https://twitter.com/policeoffthecuf 🎧 Dive deep into true crime with Police Off the Cuff Podcast. Join retired NYPD expert Bill Cannon as he dissects infamous cases with insider insight: https://anchor.fm/otcpod1 ☑️ Support Police Off the Cuff and help us bring you more captivating crime stories. Every contribution makes a difference! Choose your preferred way to donate: Venmo: https://venmo.com/William-Cannon-27 PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/policeoffthecuff1gma --------------- 📚 Disclaimer: This video may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. --------------- #PoliceOffTheCuff

(upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome to Police Off the Cuff Real Crime Stories. I'm your host, Retired NYPD Sergeant Bill Cannon, a 27 year veteran of the NYPD. Folks, sad times we are living in when a candidate for president, former president, is the subject of an assassination attempt, an assassination attempt that killed an innocent person sitting behind the president at the rally and seriously wounded two others. And in addition, of course, to former president, Donald Trump being shot in his right ear. I mean, we can all see just looking at that picture, how close it was to a death shot, you know? That's how close. What do we know about the assassination attempt so far? The former president was holding a rally when he said he was shot in his ear. Two people, including the suspected gunman, were killed and two were critically wounded. A man fired multiple shots. A man that we now know to be Thomas Crooks of Pennsylvania, Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, age 20. Mr. Trump was rushed off the stage, blood visible around his right ear. He was taken to a hospital and a secret service that he was safe. The secret service also said its personal and killed the shooter, again, whom federal law enforcement officials identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, PA. This evening, we had what we were calling an assassination attempt against our former president, Donald Trump, Kevin Rojek, a special agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation said during a news conference at the Butler Township Police Department on Saturday. So this is being scrutinized by every law enforcement agency, all government agencies, everyone that has a TV that watched this unfold. And there's lots of criticism to go around. And an agency like the secret service, if one person gets shot, one person gets hurt, then they failed their mission for that day. And that's just the way it is. It's one failure, and you're considered a failure. So we're gonna look at this case. We're gonna look at what happened. We're gonna look at who they found out this shooter, Thomas Crooks, to be. And we'll look into his background. These cases unfold over time because good investigation takes time to conduct. So folks, hold on to your hats, hold on to your seats. Hold on to your loved ones, your service dog, your wig, your toupee, your hat, whatever you got because you're about to enter true crime from a police perspective. You're about to enter the off the cuff zone, the police off the cuff zone. (dramatic music) (electronic music) The afternoon's in common sense. - Yes, sir, and the other cars don't intend and grant you by the driver. - We still don't know before the trailer. (dramatic music) (electronic music) - Folks, joining me tonight to do this presentation about this ongoing investigation is none other than retired NYPD Sergeant Professor at Albertus Magnus College and excuse me, Connecticut. And also an attorney, welcome to the show. Professor Michael Geary. - Hey, Bill, good evening. Good to see everyone. Thank you for watching the show. - You know, Mike, when this went down last night, I guess it was approximately 6, 15, 18, 15 hours. - Right. - I watched on with horror as everyone else did. And whether you are a Republican Democrat, you should just be a human being and see that someone tried to take the life of a public official of someone who is running for office, the highest office in this land. And as a result of that, an innocent man, I believe a 15 year old firefighter who was a Trump supporter in the crowd got shot in the head, killed. Two others in the crowd were hit and they are both in critical condition. So besides the former President Trump who got shot in his right ear, there was what they would call in law enforcement as peripheral damage. But this damage, because this gun was an AR-15, there's no simple gunshot wounds with an AR-15 that you're meant to kill. Your thoughts, Mike. - Yeah, Billie, Mr. Crooks used a very well-made, well-known, widely distributed, very well-made AR-15, semi-automatic firearm. But by the grace of God, he didn't kill the President. You could see, as you said, how close that shot was, just nicking the upper part of his right ear, one inch away from a death shot. So it's terrible, the amount of infliction of damage that he did with that rifle in the hands of a 20-year-old. I was very scary, no one wins, our republic loses. There's no Democrats and no Republicans in this fight right now. This is simply over the kind of society we have, the kind of politics we have, the scale of the rhetoric and the fact that we are coming to the beginning of the end of the campaign with both the Republicans' Democrats having their conventions real soon. In fact, I think tomorrow the Republicans actually start, but it's really, it could have been much worse than it was, but it was a horror show, and we should all be horrified as Americans that this is going on in our country. It's a real shame and it's disgusting, it's embarrassing, and there's no place for this kind of violence in America. As happens in all these instances, every single fucking head on TV is critiquing the successes and failures of the Secret Service, and no matter what way you slice it, you've got to consider this a failure, because four people got shot, one dead, and when we're talking about security, we're talking about prevention, prevention. Protect assets and reduce risks. They didn't do that yesterday. I want to play this former FBI agent, more than an agent, assistant director. He's going to talk about the security failures yesterday. - BI doing right now to figure out why this guy acted like this. - They're dissecting every aspect of this person's life. I'm a little surprised it took him that long to identify him, but they're looking at whether he has ideology or was driven by ideology, which would make this not just an assassination attempt, but domestic terrorism. Is there anyone else in his network, if you will, his social network that might have shared that ideology? Are there others? - Carly mentioned earlier about reconciling this discrepancy between, hey, there's no threat, but yet we haven't identified this person. You can't reconcile those two things. And I also want to comment about what Jonathan Gilliam said earlier, he was spot on. This was a security breakdown from start to finish. And this was the primary goal, the primary mission of the Secret Service is to prevent this type of action. And then react as as sweet as they can to get him out of the danger zone, neither happened here. So I don't want to issue harsh judgments, but it was definitely a security breakdown. - Yeah, one of the things that Jonathan was talking about is the image that we'll all remember of the president. You could see his face, you could see his fist, he was saying fight, fight, fight. But there are questions on if that should have happened, if he should have been allowed to be that visible following this assassination attempt on him. - Absolutely not. If you look at what happened with Reagan, when he was shot, they had him in the car within seconds. In this case, as Jonathan said, it was a lifetime before they got him off that stage. And look, it was a great moment when he pumped his fist, that'll go down in history as one of the dramatic moments, most dramatic moments in this country's history, I think, but it should not have been allowed to happen. They should have whisked him out of there in seconds, no matter what he wanted to do, whether he wanted to shoes or pump his fist, no matter what, he should have been off that stage in that car and out of there in seconds. And it was a lifetime. If there had been a second shooter, they would have taken him out. I mean, it was almost a kill shot, I hate to put it this way, but it was almost a kill shot as it was. But if there had been a second shooter, there would have been plenty of opportunity to take him out again. So this breaks every rule of the Secret Service's protocol and just general executive protection in general. - What can the FBI do now to prevent a copycat? Or is there nothing they can do, because this is a lone wolf acting alone, just decided I'm gonna hop on top of a building and fire at the president. - Yeah, I mean, obviously the Secret Service has a primary responsibility to protect. The FBI's responsibility is to generate intelligence and help the Secret Service prevent this sort of thing and get out in front of it. But now, and I said this yesterday, very early in the process, the FBI would step in, it's their jurisdiction to investigate this type of incident. And there'll be lessons learned immediately, which I think will be put in play at the DNC, at the RNC. But in this case, the FBI is not just investigating the incident, they're investigating the protection and the security strategy around it. That's why you didn't see a Secret Service at the press conference last night. They have a conflict of interest. They can't be part of the investigation, even though the FBI is playing nice about that part of it. But the FBI has exclusive jurisdiction in this case, in the case of an attempted assassination, and they will tear this thing apart. They will bring every resource they have to bear. They will go through this, you know, as mentioned earlier, I mean, they're obviously dissecting this person's life, his home, his media, his social media, his electronic devices, his friends, et cetera. But there'll be lessons learned here and they'll come out pretty quick. - We were just talking about this with Congressman Jimenez. And it feels like this tweet from Congressman Michael Walts will be where this goes. In terms of questions asked in the days and weeks ahead, he says, "I have a very reliable source telling me "that there have been repeated requests "for stronger Secret Service protection "for President Trump denied by Secretary Mayor Chris. "Can we get your reaction to that "in the minute we have remaining?" - Yeah, yes. They need to look at that. If resources were denied, and these Trump rallies are security nightmare, they need the resources. They need more resources, obviously, than they had yesterday. So, yeah, and they also need to look at the political rhetoric, because, I mean, anyone who calls, has called this former president an existential threat has blood on their hands. And that's President Biden, that would include former President Obama, anyone else who demonizes someone in the manner that he's been demonized as basically put a bullseye on his back for every little 20-year-old, every little wing nut out there who it's driven and sort of whipped into a frenzy by that sort of rhetoric. - Well, this is a stunning time in America. - Your thoughts, Mike, I mean, that was like, first of all, as you watch that. - Right. - The secret service looks amateurish. Yes, did they try to attempt to cover his body? He was exposed. If there was another shooter, he was a dead man. He was an absolute dead man. He was exposed on that stage. They had to whisk him, get him the hell off the stage of me, even if he was wounded. Say he was wounded in his torso, it's strong. Why are you keeping him on the stage? Get him the hell off the stage. And someone kind of clear shot to his head from the crowd. - Billy, we talked a little bit about this earlier, and I suggested that, yeah, I don't like to use the term, you know, a failure on the secret services part, but when Chris Wecker, the FBI agent right there, was speaking, it is true, it was a failure because the job is to prevent a thing, an attempt. And if you get an attempt on someone like a member of the president's family or vice president's family or, you know, things like that, whoever they're protecting, then it is a failure, then it is a breakdown. As much as I love the secret service, they did fail in that regard. He was right. They should have just picked him up from his belt and just took him physically, bodily, down those stairs as fast as they possibly could. You know, freak the shoes, freak the hat, get him out of there. That car should have been running with the door wide open. They should have got him in there, threw him in their head first like they did with Reagan and just get, and just get out of there as fast as possible. He was right, if there was a second shooter, this was a real organized event, he would have been dead because he was standing up and he was positioned in this upright position for too long. And so, but by the grace of God, there was not a second shooter, but it was a failure. As much as I hate to say that it really was a failure. And he got, you know, we all got lucky and he's right about the political rhetoric. Both parties are to blame for this, but anybody that calls either, you know, Joe Biden or Donald Trump, an existential threat to our country, you know, is wrong. You should never do that. You know, words mean something. Great speeches in history mean something. They inspire people and to inspire people to violent actions or to hate so deeply that they actually want to take action. Like he said, you know, you say these things, words have meaning and they have consequences because people are motivated to do things by them and that's terrible. Hopefully, hopefully, you know, I doubt it, but hopefully the rhetoric will drop precipitously from going forward from now on and we won't have this sort of stuff because you don't want to inspire, there's enough crazies out there. You don't need to inspire them any more than they already are, but this was a terrible day and the FBI, Chris Swecker, was absolutely right. And all that he said, all that he said, he was right on 100%. You know, one of the things we're finding out now is that some civilians saw this shooter, Thomas Crooks, climbing up on the roof of the rifle and they yelled to local police and there's another report, none confirmed report, that a local police officer went and confronted him but had the AR-15 pointed at him, he either back down, went down because the guy, he obviously had the gun pointed right at him and seconds after that he started shooting. So we don't know specifically the timeframe, but there are many people coming forward now that said they saw him go up on this roof with this gun and if that's true, that is a horrific failure because why didn't they have, there wasn't that many rooftops around. Why didn't they, the police officer or a secret service agent on every single rooftop? There was not like, there was a city, you know, a New York city where there's rooftops all over the place. This was only like a two-story building, all right? I wanna play a little bit of this Mike and you'll see what I'm saying here. - And see 'em, or we could hear 'em. So we walked up and probably five to seven minutes of Trump speaking, I'm estimating here, I have no idea, you know, like we noticed the guy crawling, armed, you know, bear crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away from us. So we're standing there, you know, we're pointing at the guy, crawling up the roof. - And he had a gun, right? - He had a rifle, we could clearly see him with a rifle, absolutely, we're pointing at him, the police are down there running around on the ground, we're like, hey man, there's guy on the roof with a rifle and the police are like, huh, what, you know, like they didn't know what was going on. You know, we're like, hey, right here on the roof, we can see him from right here, we see him. You know, he's crawling. And next thing you know, I'm like, I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, why is Trump still speaking? Why have they not pulled him up the stage? I'm standing there pointing at him for, you know, two, three minutes, secret services looking at us from the top of the barn, I'm pointing at that roof, just standing there like this. And next thing you know, five shots running out. - So you're certain that the shots came from that guy on the roof? - 100%, 100%. - And he was up there for a couple of minutes. - He was up there? - You saw him up there for a couple of minutes. - Absolutely. - At least three, four minutes. - And you were telling the police in the secret service? - We were telling the police, we were pointing at him for the secret service who were looking at us from the top of the barn, they were looking at us the whole time and we were standing by that tree. - Fornoculars. - They see him. - Probably not, because the roof, the way the slope went, he was behind where they could see. But why is there not secret service on all of these roofs here? I mean, this is not a big place. - You know, if this is all true, this is horrific. And when you talk about a security failure, this is a colossal security failure that civilians saw this kid climbing up on the roof, this 20 year old man, with an AR-15 and they shouted out to the local police and no one pulled Trump, what kind of communication did they have with the secret service? Did the local police have a straight line or radio to communicate right to the secret service? You know, sometimes the feds don't work well with local law enforcement and we've seen that ourselves, Mike. So was there no communication between the local police and the secret service that could have said, get Trump off the stage as a guy on a rooftop with a gun? - They saw this before he started shooting. - Billy, you're probably right. There might not have been a headquarters tent where you would have the local police on one radio channel, the secret service and the FBI on theirs. And it would all come into communication center. You just need a picnic table and a tent and a couple of guys with radios so they could sitting next to each other, talking so they could communicate what the state troopers are saying and what the local police are saying, what the FBI is saying, what the secret service is saying. Yeah, it was a big communications failure. And you know, we've been in like riots and stuff in New York City, you always take the high ground. You always put one cop on top of each building. In this area, this isn't the most built up area that I've ever seen. There's a couple of big barn-like structures but one cop, an hour ahead of time, get one cop up there and with binoculars and making sure they're on their building and they could all see each other with binoculars, you know, hundreds of yards in the distance. And so everybody can give each other the thumbs up and be like, okay, we're clear here. And then have a little roving patrol behind everybody behind, you know, behind the circle of where the protection was. But, you know, it's not, you know, splitting the atom. This is just basic security. And I think probably part of it could be the fact that the secret service may not have as much people detailed. We know Tigard Trump. We know this is true. I think Robert Kennedy Jr. has complained that he doesn't have enough secret service. - No, he has no secret service. - No, I'm not. - Okay, great. He turned him down. They turned him down. - You know, this is a failure of our own present administration because, you know, this isn't like the first primary where there might be 30 people all vying for the Republicans and Democrats in a particular state. But this is down, we're right close to the election now. We're only five months out. You're down to two candidates. And Robert Kennedy also, who's an alternative, he should have his secret service protection. How that isn't done and how they're not communicating maybe well with the local police and the local troopers in the area. I don't know. Maybe we, maybe they just do things differently on that level. But maybe they're, you know, being, I guess, in the NYPD, we're spoiled. We always had personnel. Maybe we always had the personnel to do these things. You know, we'd be tripping over each other at parades and at UN assemblies when someone was speaking. You know, when a president was in town, maybe we had that luxury. But here you take the high ground. One cop on each roof would have been. - You know, we look at this hopefully. - People even in the chat are saying, oh, the secret service has different radios. That's two, then have a secret service radio go to the police, give them your radios. So you're like, okay, with them. That's inexcusable. Cops saw this guy. They could have said, get him off the stage now. But they did, right? That takes a split second to do that. I wanna play this from news nation. They actually claim a local police officer confronted the gunman before he started shooting. Several law enforcement officials are telling the AP that a local officer actually encountered the shooting suspect on the top of that building that he's accused of shooting from, climbed up onto the roof. This was after being flagged down by people, bystanders, who saw that suspect climb up there. And that officer apparently went up onto the roof and the suspect pointed his rifle at the officer and that officer reportedly retreated, giving the suspect the opportunity to shoot his rifle at former president Trump. So that is one of the big things that we are learning. That's in the latest reporting according to the Associated Press. We are also learning more in about the victims in this situation. And now all three of them have now been named. This according to the Pennsylvania governor's office, we have been telling you over the past hours about the father of two and husband, 50-year-old Corey Comparator of Sarver, Pennsylvania. He had already been named, but just in the last few moments, the Pennsylvania governor's office has named those other two victims who are in critical but stable condition. They are 57-year-old David Dutch of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and 74-year-old James Copenhagen of Moon Township, Pennsylvania. Again, both of them now listed in stable condition and we understand they are still at the hospital. Anna. - Evan, I just want you to highlight one more time, that latest bit of information that's being reported by the Associated Press. There, what happened on the rooftop? Can you share one more time? - Sure, so this is a big piece of information that the Associated Press now reporting according to several officials who spoke to them on the basis of anonymity. They are saying that it has been learned in this investigation that a local police officer had been flagged down by those rally goers who noticed that the suspect Thomas Crooks had climbed up onto a nearby roof. They had flagged down this local officer. The officer climbed up onto the roof and reportedly went up there to confront the suspected shooter. That suspected shooter Crooks pointed his rifle at the officer according to the AP and that officer retreated, then giving the suspect the chance to fire his weapon at former President Trump. - Oh my goodness, all right. - That's, you know, one of the things that I'm shaking my head at also, and I, you know, in a way like, you know, if the officer walked up there and was confronted and the guy had his AR-15 pointed right at him, I don't know too many people that are gonna draw and, you know, I'm sure he retreated and immediately communicated with someone as a guy on the roof with a gun. But the bigger issue is in all security, large events, there's supposed to be something called an advanced team. An advanced team is supposed to sweep the location before the principal arrives, all right. And if the advanced team sees any vulnerabilities, they gotta correct those vulnerabilities. So no one from the Secret Service saw these rooftops as vulnerabilities that a potential shooter could use to secrete himself on and to use as a sniper position. Look, Mike, we have to be super critical. This, the former president of the United States was shot and it was centimeters from hitting him in the head. You know, it took out his right, his right ear. And, you know, as we know, one person is dead and two are critical right now. So yes, we want answers. We wanna know what the hell happened. Where were the failures here, Mike? - Yeah, Billy, you know, they knew where Trump would be standing. They knew where he'd be coming in, where he'd be exiting. They knew where the position is car. You know, they knew the bleachers. You stand there at the podium and you go from where, where he exits the vehicle and just walk it with the Secret Service agent. And as you walk, you scan to see, okay, here's the crowd, where are the trees, where are the buildings? Are there towers, like a water tower in the distance? You know, that sort of thing. And when you get to the podium, when Trump is most vulnerable, standing behind the podium, you stand there and just look. And you just look around, it's not, and you think, okay, wow, there's a building over there. It might be 200 or 300 yards. But guess what? You gotta take it out because any decent hunting rifle that you could buy from, you know, sportsmen's warehouse or, you know, cabellas or anything like that can do that. Shot, very easily, 'cause a regular deer rifle can do it. So, you know, that's what you do. And then you correct it. You make sure that, okay, we're gonna have somebody over there. I want somebody there 40 minutes before some cop on that roof, at least 40 minutes before the president arrives. I want a cop on all of those rules. It doesn't take a million people to do it, but I don't know, I don't know, I don't have an answer for why there was this object failure. And it's, just put by the grace of God, it wasn't worse. But here's a 20 year old, probably a lone wolf, is right now it looks like he's a lone wolf. Could you imagine if this was a very organized plot with some sort of al-Qaeda terrorist or something like that or something, you know, that sort of thing, this would have been far worse and it would have been terrible. But this kind of lone wolf, perhaps, even though he's very difficult to catch usually 'cause they don't post a lot of stuff on social media, they don't give themselves away, they're not part of organization. The fact is, this is a 20 year old kid, he doesn't have military training, so he's not like the former Green Barret, a Navy SEAL, he's never been to boot camp, he just graduated high school for crying. - You know, my kids and people can do this. - My kids in Pennsylvania grow up with a gun in their basketball. So, they know how to shoot as good as anyone in the service 'cause they start hunting from a very, very young age. So, yeah, I mean, look, proficiency with a firearm is something called experience and practice. And the more you practice, the better you get at it. So, folks, this is Police Off The Cover Your Crime Stories, if you like real crime, true crime from a police perspective, you're in the right place and if you're not subscribed, go on to YouTube, hit that subscribe button, give us a thumbs up, bring that bell, hit the like button, share us with your friends and your family. And if you wanna contribute to us financially, we have a Patreon with four different levels, and we also have a YouTube channel membership with count of five different levels and we appreciate all our friends, our friends and our subscribers for everything they do in supporting this channel. You know, I wanna say that, you know, these, look, I think Gerald Ford, someone tried to assassinate him two or three times. - So, we keep friends with people. - Yeah, and Ronald Reagan, of course. But because the Secret Service is usually so good that they thwart attempts or the security prevents things because a shooter will say, I'm gonna get caught if I do this 'cause they're good, they're so good at this. But this time, for some reason, and could it be that they didn't have enough personnel to secure this rally? Were there not enough agents? Is it, could that be a political thing? If we just spoke about Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a third party candidate whose father-- - Oh, I have a third party candidate, yeah. - Was assassinated, requested Secret Service protection and was denied. Is that political? I'd say sure as hell is, shouldn't he be getting secret? You bet he should be getting Secret Service is 'cause he's a third party candidate. He's not getting Secret Service. Security costs a fortune if you have to pay for it yourself as a political candidate. So, could something here be political? Could they, because the party in charge doesn't particularly like this guy, that they didn't give him enough security personnel? Could that be? I don't know, I don't know the answer to that. I'm just questioning it, could it be? Yeah, it shows how could be. Let's listen to CNN for quick, there are remarks on this. This is being called a security failure at the highest level. So tell our viewers how this happened. - Well, well, if that is the biggest question here, and I can tell you, I've spoken with multiple members of law enforcement who look at the proximity of that building to the former president and are absolutely astounded, shocked, I mean, the list of adjectives goes on and on, that something like this could happen. What we know, Wolf, is that according to the Secret Service, that building was outside of the perimeter, but the question is, what was supposed to happen at the building? Was someone supposed to be posted there? Was there a sweep? When did the sweep happen? Ultimately, how did this shooter get up onto the roof? And the other major question here, Wolf, is that in the planning, how did the Secret Service determine the relevance of that building in this larger operational plan? Did they look at that building as a vulnerability? Did they just simply say it's outside the perimeter? This perimeter is wide enough and move on. These are the questions that need to be answered by the Secret Service and certainly the questions that the Secret Service is asking themselves at this very moment. What we know, Wolf, is that what the Secret Service does at events like this, and certainly this happened at the rally, is that they rely on local law enforcement to fill in gaps. That happens all the time. It is extremely routine for the Secret Service. And in this case, for example, they had two Secret Service counter sniper teams available on the ground with the former president as well as two local counter sniper teams. But again, there are so many questions, Wolf, about, was somebody supposed to be posted there? And why wasn't a member of law enforcement posted on the roof? And Whitney, we now know it wasn't just local law enforcement that spotted the shooter beforehand. Some witnesses say they actually saw a man carrying a rifle outside that security perimeter just ahead of the rally. Another told our affiliate, KDKA, he saw a guy moving from roof to roof. Why didn't anyone react before he started shooting? - That is another major question here, Wolf. And what we understand, again, is that law enforcement spotted this person and they were at least having some discussions over the radio about suspicious activity. But the question is, when was this person spotted with a firearm and what did local law enforcement do about it, what did the Secret Service do about it? According to the Washington Post, what we know is that a law enforcement officer was able to determine that the sniper was up on the roof and actually pulled himself up onto the roof. And in a moment, very briefly, it's unclear if they exchanged any words, but at least they saw one another. And the shooter on top of that roof saw this local law enforcement officer turn to his rifle. Again, this is according to the Washington Post. And in that moment, the officer dropped from the roof to try to take cover to save his own life. So many more questions, Wolf, about why, if this person was acting suspiciously, if he was spotted with a firearm, why there weren't counterintelligence officials watching him, I was speaking with a source earlier today who said normally what should happen in a case like this is the second you see somebody acting suspiciously, especially if they are later seen with a firearm is you have someone from law enforcement watching them right away. And then you even have someone from law enforcement, this is almost laughable. You have someone from law enforcement watching him. No, you have someone from law enforcement confront him. Not watch him. He's going to the gun, you confront him and you take his gun away or you shoot him. You know, and that's one of the other things. Mike, I wanted to ask, and I don't know if you know the answer 'cause I'm not sure I do. And I think we would almost need someone from the Secret Service to let us know this. And now of course we had the sniper team that took out the shooter, right? And here's a picture up on the screen. My question is, what are the rules of engagement for this sniper? Can he shoot just seeing someone on a rooftop with a gun, unidentified person? Is that enough for him to shoot to take that guy out? What are the, that's what I want to know. What are the rules of engagement? Now, for a police officer, you can use deadly physical force if someone is attempting to use deadly physical force against you or another person. It's very narrow guidelines as to when you can use deadly physical force. But I think it may differ for a sniper who's protecting a political candidate. He may have a green light to go and that's the rules of engagement. That's what we would call it. He may have the green light to shoot if he sees someone on a rooftop. Unidentified with a firearm. Do you know the answer to that, Mike? - No, I wish I did. That's going to probably be part of the investigation and part of the newspaper report is going to be fine. Asking is, what was the exact protocol? What our Secret Service agent protocol when it comes to using deadly physical force? We know earlier on, I think it was in Georgetown. There was a, someone in the President's family had their car hijacked or something and the police shot at the secret service shot at the guy leaving when there was no further threat to the family member. That was about eight months ago, nine months ago. I would think, yeah, to me from a regular police officer's point of view, NYPD training, I think this is probably going to be fairly common, is that the moment you have someone that you see that you reasonably believe is about to use deadly physical force in someone or a third party or yourself, you can extinguish that threat. I would imagine that the Secret Service probably have a little bit more leeway when it comes to the President because you don't want, you gotta be careful because there might be just an onlooker with binoculars, some teenage kids that climb up on the roof that just want to see-- - Mike, that's the whole point. - They shouldn't be able to climb up on the roof. They should not be able to. This is supposed to be a secure area. So if someone gets on the roof, their intentions right away are bad. Andy the Gabby Cabby, thank you so much for gifting five police officer cuff memberships. Thank you so much, Andy. Much success to you on your podcast in London. Andy the Gabby Cabby, good friend of the show. Thank you so much. Yeah, I mean, look, if someone at a political rally climbs up on a rooftop, their intentions in my mind are bad. I just want to know what this sniper, his training taught him, when is he given the green light to take someone out? At a political rally, if someone's on a rooftop and they even have a gun, I would think he has the green light to take that person out. How long did he wait? How long did he wait to shoot this guy? Did he see him before he fired the shots? That's some of the questions I have, Mike, because it could have prevented a death and three other people from getting shot, including a former president of the United States. I mean, if there was some sort of better communication between the local police and as the gentleman, the red hair who was speaking to the British reporter said the guy was up there for like several minutes. If there was some better communication, they could have said, we have a threat, stage right, 300 yards in the distance. And you could have had that spotter, check it out and talk to a sniper standing right next to him, get eyes on that roof. And the moment you see a firearm, you probably, I don't know, you would probably be able to take that shot if you see any sort of weapon in that person's hand. But the fact is that this person didn't just climb up on the roof, they immediately shoot, they climbed up on the roof, people had seen him, people were screaming, there was a breakdown in communication that I doubt that the Secret Service upstairs on that nest, anti-sniper nest, were made aware of that fact until they probably sort themselves with their own binoculars or something like that. And maybe they didn't even actually see it until the first shot was fired. But it is a communications breakdown, definitely a communications breakdown. - Absolutely, conversation, Evie Pamporas, she's a former Secret Service agent, Evie, good morning. I wanna put up this map of the farm grounds where this event was held last night. So the elevated position where the shooter was set up was about 150 yards from the stage where former President Trump was speaking. As a former Secret Service agent, are you surprised that building wasn't better secured? - So when you do a security plan, you've got the main security, right? The security perimeter, where there's the magnetometers, where people are being checked as they're entering the event. You have the out of perimeter, where is when you have an open rally like this, you are extremely vulnerable. I've done these, they're probably the most anxious you're ever gonna be as an agent because you're trying to secure all of it. Now the adjacent buildings, you do this in urban environments, you do this in a rural environment like this. When you do a security plan, you literally put yourself on stage and then you look out as if you were the protectee, what can I see? And if I can see it, it can probably see me. Now, for an outer perimeter like that, typically you will have a local law enforcement presence. You'll notice those buildings and the Secret Service works with local police. You have to think of the Secret Service like they're the conductor of the orchestra. They create the blueprint and design for the security plan. They work with state police, they work with local police and then they put in resources and assets. - So in the typical scenario or in the scenario that one wishes would have unfolded, would you have had perhaps a local official secure that roof to make sure the roof is clear, to make sure nobody's in the building and then stand guard there. So no one comes in after that clearing. - So we don't know if they did or did not do this. - Yes, that they should have. - I would, I would. - You know, something this is stupidity 101. Of course they should have done it. You know, it's like-- - Right, right. - It's not a difficult question. - For the grounds, we talked about, you're supposed to have an advanced team that comes in and does a security survey of the site. See where the vulnerabilities are. Mark the vulnerabilities. Put law enforcement at these vulnerabilities. Have plain clothes offices in the crowd. So people in the crowd sometimes will say something they don't want law enforcement to hear. But if you have a plain clothes guy there who's not wearing those big ABA to sunglasses and a secret service suit, you know, it's almost like a uniform. Get some people in the crowd that with the old type anti-crime outfits where they could be blended in with the crowd. But, you know, yes, this is a failure. A huge, huge failure. And, you know, to talk about, oh, should someone have been on those? There wasn't even that many buildings. Yes, they should have been on those buildings. Are you kidding me? Absolutely, they should have been on those buildings. And then, you know, the other failures, of course, look, it's admirable to see the secret service guys were willing to risk their lives to save former President Trump's life as they all gathered around him. But that looked like, you know, failure of security costs one on one, two. Don't you surround them? Get them the hell off the stage immediately, you know? And they're standing there. I'm just saying, look, I hate to criticize other law enforcement, but this was a shit show. It was horrible, absolutely horrible. - You're sorry, you're right, you're right. It was, it was, they should have picked him up by his belt loops and just picked him up and just carried him out of there, almost as if, like, you know, say somebody had their ankles hurt, you gather up like in a basket and carry him out of there. He should have been whisked out of there and not allowed to grab his shoes, grab us how to do anything. Just get him the heck out of as fast as you can. Get that car, that engine should be running, the door is open. That should be a fan length with local cops there so that any time he moved from the stage to that big van, Bronco, whatever the heck it was, get them there so that the crowd can't see him anymore so that no one else could take a shot at him. It was, it was, it was a cluster freak, total cluster freak and maybe it was due to poor communication, maybe it was due to lack of personnel, maybe it was due to a crappy advanced team, maybe it was due to a poor perimeter setup, maybe it was due to one or all of those things, but whatever it happened, it happened, it's like Murphy's Law, you know? - You know who you have to blame, just like the NYPD does. You blame the boss, it's the boss's fault because as they used to say in the police department, pardon my expression everyone, shit rolls downhill and you're the highest ranking person, your plan fails, you go, you take the hit, you get transferred, you work in Oshkosh or whatever that I don't mean to disparage Oshkosh, but you're transferred to the furthest location, they used to say in the NYPD, you're getting what's called a highway therapy, which means so far from where you live that this therapy will correct all the mistakes you've ever made and this is a failure, so guess what, maybe it's the head of Homeland Security has to take a hit for this, maybe it's the head of the Secret Services to take a hit for this, someone's gotta pay for this. - Right, if this was the NYPD, like you said, somebody's gonna get scalped and that's just the way it goes, so everybody who's a boss there is gonna probably be thinking, all right, I guess I'm gonna retire now, I guess I gotta move on and get another job, whether or not it's you or someone else, maybe above you or just below you or something like that, but somebody is going to be sacrificed, they're just gonna have the sacrificial lamb and they're gonna be executed in a congressional hearing and tarred and feathered in front of everybody, it's not nice, but that's the way it goes, you and I all know that, that and Phil, that's what we've seen this in the NYPD, that's what happens. - Absolutely, Andy the Gabby Gabby, in the UK we call it shit only flows one way, down the hill, down the hill it flows, but you know something, people are used to that on the NYPD, something you do something wrong, and it doesn't necessarily mean your entire career is over, it could be a situation like this would end the career, and potentially this could end the career of the head of the Secret Service. It could end, I think it's a female, I don't know her name, but it could end her career because this is very, very serious. Now who is Thomas Crooks, that's what's going from the event to now to the investigation, who is this guy, right? And look at him, he looks like a kid, he's 20 years old, Thomas Crooks, he's like 20 years old, he works in a nursing home as a dietary aid, so where did he get all this anger? We know that he got the AR-15, it belongs to his father. So when we find out, when we start the investigation of Thomas Crooks, what is the FBI looking at right now? Well, they're looking at all of his social media, they're doing search warrants on his cell phone, they're doing search warrants on his home, his vehicle, apparently in his vehicle, they found bomb making materials. That's the latest we're getting, not specifically bombs, but bomb making materials and also they found the same in his home. So is this concerning? I would think, and I think it's premature to say this early in the investigation that he acted alone. I think it's a little bit too early to say that. I think he got to wait a little bit and do a little bit more checks to really say he acted alone. But where did he learn how to make bombs? And I understand you can go on the internet and learn it right on the internet, but sometimes if you have a bomb that's completed, it has a signature to it that'll actually tell the investigator where you learned that or who is this, who taught you this? Because this is the way they do it in this organization. This is the way they do it in that organization. Right now they're saying, potentially, he is a lone wolf. But I don't know if they can really say that yet. Let's listen to what they're saying about Thomas Matthew Crooks. Take a look at what happens. Secret Service agents swarm former President Donald Trump and rush him off stage after a gunman fired shots during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. I think we had what we're calling an assassination attempt against our former president, Donald Trump. It's still an active crime scene. Trump said he was shot by a bullet that pierced the upper part of his right ear. On his true social media platform, he wrote, quote, "I knew immediately that something was wrong and then I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping it through the skin." A New York Times photographer captured this image of what appears to show, a bullet racing by the former president's head. The FBI identified the gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. They say he fired shots from outside the secure, cordoned area of the rally atop an elevated structure. He starts shooting. Bow, bow, bow, bow, bow. Four to five shots rang out. Law enforcement converged on Crooks family suburban Pittsburgh home overnight. They asked us to leave their house. They told us it was a state of emergency. No warning, it's knocked in the door in the middle of the night. Officials say the gunman fired six to eight rounds from an AR-15 assault rifle before he was shot and killed by a member of the Secret Service Counter Assault Team. The FBI called it, quote, "surprising," that he was able to fire at the stage before he was killed. We do not currently have an identified motive, although our investigators are working tirelessly to attempt to identify what that motive was. Last night's rally in Pennsylvania was former President Trump's last before the Republican National Convention gets underway here in Milwaukee. Right now, plans are underway to expand the security perimeter around this venue. President Biden spoke with Trump Saturday evening. He condemned the attack. There's no place in America for this kind of violence. It's sick. It's sick. Trump was treated at a local hospital. He returned to his golf club in New Jersey early this morning. Crazy, but you know something. So Thomas Crooks, what we know, is grew up in Pennsylvania. He works at a nursing home as a dietary aide. They're looking into, of course, was he a lone wolf? Did he have help? What were his activities prior to this day? Did he recon that location? I would think that's probably the answer to that has to be yes. Why, how did he get on that roof? Apparently, there was a ladder there. Did he put that ladder there? You know, these are all the questions we have. What was his, you know, online activity like they have to, of course, search his computer, search his cell phone, search warrants on his car, search warrants on his parents' home. All of these things to uncover what little we actually know right now, what made him, you know, we're hearing that he was a registered Republican, yet he made a donation of $15 to a Democrat or organization. You have that written down, Mike? Yeah, act blue back in 2021. He donated $15 when he was in high school to act blue. Well, that's not going to break the bank or help anyone who got elected $15, but, you know, it's like where was, what it does tell us or what questions we have to ask is, well, what was his ideology? What angered him so much that he would try to kill former President Trump and in the act of doing that, kill an innocent bystander, a fireman, a 50, a 50, five, zero year old man when I believe two children. Yeah, wound two others critically. What angered him so much that allowed him to do that? We don't have the answers to that yet. Will we ever have the answers to that? Well, I hope that, you know, the FBI's, they're working on it. They're going to do a good investigation. He's 20 years old, you know. Most of us that have kids, we would consider a 20 year old, still a kid, but when someone does a horrific crime like this, he just entered manhood because had he lived, he was going to go to prison for the rest of his life, but he was taken out by the Secret Service sniper team. And, you know, we talked about that before. Did the sniper team become aware of him prior to the shooting? Right at the shooting, did the sound alert them to the area where the shots were coming from? These are all questions that will be part of this investigation in addition to finding out who Thomas Crooks is, Mike. Yeah, Billy, if I was the cop, Secret Service FBI doing the search warrant, I want to go through that guy's computer. I want to go through his text messages on his phone. I want to go through his drawers. I want to see what he's reading. I want to know who he's talking to. And I also want to know how much exposure has he had to that AR. I want to know if that was his AR. I want to know how the AR was locked and how it was secured, because you could have all the best intentions in the world as a father or a mother and have a firearm, but how is that secured at home? Who else has actual access to it? So I want to know all of those things, not to disparage the family, but I want to know every single question that may be asked about how this all happened from A to Z. Yeah, we don't know right now because we don't see any organizations that he may belong to. So there's a little presupposition that he's a lone wolf, but text messaging, and when they'll probably find out who all those friends are from high school and because I don't think he's gone to college. A smart kid in math and science, he even got some sort of award, like a $500 award, but as far as we know, he's not in college, so I'm wondering why isn't he in college? Is he incapable of doing college work, for some reason? And he's working in the food service in his old age home. I want to know all that. I want to know what he's spoken to people about. Has he ever expressed views in the last, say, 365 days about Democrats or Republicans? What does he read? I want to know what he's reading. What does he watch on TV? What stations are you watching? All of that stuff, I want to know all of it, and that's what I want to know. I want to get inside his head. That's where I want to be. I want to be right there in his home, going through his stuff. Hopefully, if the FBI does an excellent job and their fourth right and coming to the public with what they found, we'll know soon enough. Callie from the chat, the media and their rhetoric is to blame. They called him Hitler and said he was a threat to democracy for years, and that is enough for an unhinged person. Callie, I don't totally disagree with you. I think on both sides, we have that type of rhetoric, and it's not healthy for anyone. Nonetheless, someone out there who's unhinged, and that is part of the problem. You're absolutely right. Yes. Don't, with unicorns, those pictures look like school pictures, those are not recent. Well, school pictures would-- you graduate high school when you're usually you're 18, so he's 20. So they're two years old. So they're pretty damn recent pictures. If they are from-- as I said, he's 20 years old, so it depends what your definition of recent is. In Machidaro, but unfortunately, a 20-year-old can vote. That's scary. Yeah. It's Barbara Miller. Yeah, before he graduated with the PAC donation, trying to get a girl, trying to stop bullies, because he was so weird and Republican. All his parents were more vocal about their political views. Yeah, I mean, Barbara, we're going to find out more and more about him. Right now, he's an open book. Forbidden Planet, notice how five days before this Biden said they would be putting a bull's eye on Trump's back. Biden does have a habit of saying or reading stuff out loud. He's not supposed to. Forbidden Planet, both sides use rhetoric like that, and you're right, it's not good. It can tell someone who doesn't have all their marbles that, yeah, it's OK to put someone in your gun sight, so put someone with a bull's eye on your back. Yeah, I think it's outrageous. It's outrageous, because these are all leaders. They're supposed to protect them. And a lot of it, the really hateful rhetoric, believe it or not, comes from the media. It's really the ideology of different stations. We can say Fox, too much to the right. Many stations, MSNBC, CNN, too far to the left. And where do we get the truth from? That's the question we have to ask ourselves. Where is the truth coming from when journalists-- Barbara Miller, you're right. There's rhetoric going in both directions. Words do hurt, no matter what we have taught. Barbara Miller, you're 100% correct. That's what I'm trying to import right now. Both sides use very hateful rhetoric that could tell someone who's unhinged. It's OK to attack somebody. Continue to cover this story. Tom Winters, NBC's investigative correspondent talking to law enforcement officials throughout the night. So over the night, we did get an identity for this shooter. But it seems that this hour, we don't know a lot about him or his potential motive. Well, that's exactly right. And speaking to those law enforcement officials, some of this country's top intelligence analysts and people that are on top of these type of issues, they say what is very clear this morning is that it is very unclear why this individual did what they did. No apparent criminal history, no apparent history of civil lawsuits for a 20-year-old in incredible lack of social media presence. There's really nothing that sticks out when you look at him and look at his history and look at his background that would point you to this. He's wearing, apparently, a demolition ranch t-shirt, which is after a YouTube channel, which is very pro-Second Amendment. They fire all sorts of different types of rifles. He is a registered Republican, as you mentioned, at the top of the show, in a small donation to a Democratic group. So nothing there points to somebody who would want to show up and try to kill Donald Trump at a rally. And so I think the motive here is going to be very important. It could go two different, potentially two different paths. One, some sort of reason that makes sense to nobody else because of a severe mental health breakdown that is certainly possible. Or the second, was this politically motivated? That could become a big deal. Is Donald Trump not conservative enough for him? Is there some other motivating purpose? And I think that's something that law enforcement is certainly going to pay attention to. We've got two candidates who are going to be crisscrossing this country over the next three to four months. And from a security perspective, that is a nightmare. And for society, it could become a huge issue in law enforcement officials believe, because if people think that violence is the only way to solve your political viewpoints, this could be a very rough couple of months or even longer than that. - As you say, Tom, we've become accustomed after a shooting almost immediately. You can go to a Facebook page, some kind of a manifesto, go to Twitter, wherever it is, and find everything you need to know about the shooter. It is striking that there's no trace, at least for now, no footprint on social media. So where will investigators look next for motive? - Well, that's what's going to be so key about this FBI investigation. They're asking for the public's help, but they're also going to go through every single email account he's ever thought about. I think they're going to go through all of his phones, all of his devices. What does he have on his person hard drives that could be at the home? In past incidents of mass violence or these types of shootings, those have been potentially very helpful avenues. And then, of course, there'll be a complete security review of what happened here. And obviously, the questions that have come up. - Well, let's talk about that, because we've all covered presidential events. We know that if you're in the perimeter, you get wanted, there's a magnetometer, you can not bring a weapon into the event. We've learned that this took place, the shooting outside the security perimeter, which raises the question, why is a rooftop so close to the president outside any security perimeter? - Sure, approximately 150 yards away from it. They did have the counter sniper teams up there. Those are the ones that apparently took this individual out. Yes, to your point, you see this building. And it's not directly head on from where Trump was standing. It's off to his right, if you're looking at him, as we've been looking at the video here. And so 150 yards away, elevated surface, talking about a roof of a building, should there have been law enforcement there, just to keep an eye on that facility? Should there have been law enforcement that was looking at it? Should that have been part of the perimeter? To your point, I think, Savannah, these are all big questions that need to be asked. And given that this has now occurred, I think there's a real concern in law enforcement, are other people gonna think, you know what, if that guy could do it, maybe I could do it, maybe I could do it even better. And that's a major concern going forward. - Yeah, it was in the grounds of a farm show. There actually weren't that many structures nearby. So you'd think they would check out whatever buildings were there. Typically, Tom, even if it is outside the perimeter, if there's an elevated position during a presidential or a-- - All right, these guys don't know what they're talking about. So let's not let them, just disparage any more. Because, you know, they had some of the, even the rhetoric they were askewing right there was a little bit left for my mind, you know? They're like, you know, he could be mad at something Donald Trump did. Where did he get that from? You know, certainly not law enforcement, you know? - Billy, one of the people in the chat, Greg McNeely had just posted something a few minutes ago, quote my attention, suggesting that the crooks may have been like on the spectrum, you know? People, and I kind of agree with them on this one because there are people who are very suggestible. You could plant a few ideas in their head and they read something. You know, there's so much online to read for anyone, adults and young people who are very impressionable. And they don't know if all the conspiracy theories, Democrat, Republican, all the threats to democracy and threat to the Republican, my God, our nation is changing. We have people attacking the Supreme Court, politicians and people marching by, we had a guy with a gun caught by Chief, by Associate Justice Kavanaugh's home last year. You know, words and the stuff that gets fanned, people can say things, but the media can present it in a way that doesn't fan the flames and make things worse. And when you get somebody who starts to read all this stuff and starts to internalize all this stuff, it starts to believe all these conspiracy theories about the Democratic Republican gonna destroy our nation and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That person, if they are a little bit on the spectrum, if they are a little bit gullible, if they are a little bit suggestible, you can leave them down the path to thinking that they will take action and they will correct a situation. It's really dangerous, and I just wish the news media would just crank it down a little bit and just use normal verbiage that isn't so colorful and emotional, but both sides do it all the time. You don't see anything, you know, remotely resembling the kind of news coverage we saw when we grew up in the 70s and 80s. You don't see that, it's all opinion and it's all partisan and it's really sad because they put it out there as fact and we can go on and on from both sides, but I agree with Mr. McNealy. Yeah, that person's probably suggestible and whatever group got to him and whatever stuff he started reading, he started believing. For some reason he felt that he was gonna correct a situation and he had the availability of a firearm and unfortunately he got that close to killing the President of the United States and he did kill a gentleman who's got a family and severely wound two other people and that's a scary thought and, you know, as we go into the conventions and November, let's hope there's not a repeat of this kind of nonsense and hope that maybe journalists who people call themselves journalists and even the politicians in Washington DC tone down the rhetoric on both sides and start to treat each other as normal people and not outliers that who are a severe threat, existential threat, I love that word, it's just a threat to our democracy, that's ridiculous. Milwaukee civilian, the Washington Post placed the phrase democracy dies in darkness on its masthead as a direct and explicit commentary on the Trump presidency. Right, that's what we're talking about. You know, that's giving a, that's not journalism, that's sort of giving a opinion. Kissimmee, Florida, it's not news anymore, it's opinion and commentary. That's right. I like Walter Cronkite days when you got the news just the facts. They did search the shooter's home, the FBI, let's see what they say. Figure and search the Pennsylvania home of the shooter today. It's about an hour south of where former President Trump's rally took place and CBS News correspondent Charlie DeMar is at that scene in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, just outside of the suspect's home. Charlie, describe for us the area around you right now, what have you seen? - Oh, this is a quiet suburb and this is about as close as we can get to that shooter's home police have obviously zeroed in on this home and it's a very active investigation. We've not seen neighbors going in and out, cars haven't been going in and out. And some activity did happen within about the last hour or so we did see a county bomb squad vehicle going in which coincides with reporting from CBS News sources telling us that explosive devices were found in that shooter's car. So again, that's why we have heard reports of neighbors being evacuated from their homes out of an abundance of caution. But this is still very much an act of crimes and investigators are trying to build a profile on why this happened, a potential motive. So you can bet they're talking to his family, they're talking to neighbors to really try and develop a full picture of how we got to that attempted assassination yesterday. - And Charlie, as they're building out that profile, tell us more what we're learning about this suspect. And I believe you actually spoke with someone who knew the shooter. - Yeah, how did that opportunity to speak to a former classmate of the shooter? He says he didn't know him well. He, they weren't close friends, but he did describe him as a bit of an outcast that he would sit alone at lunch, that he was bullied for various things throughout school. But of course, never would imagine that he had the capability to carry out the attack that happened yesterday. Also, we are gathering from law enforcement sources that the gun used was purchased by that 20 year old's father. And again, we are hearing from neighbors, not many people here knew each other. This is from being out here for a few hours this morning. Neighbors know each other, going on their morning Sunday walks. But people didn't really know this family at all, which did stand out to us out here. - All right, Charlie DeMar and Bethel Park pencil. - So not much one of the things they found about in this investigation was that they did find bomb making materials. That's all they put out there in his, both in his car and in his home. We don't know at what level of a bomb maker he is, if at all, but the FBI did report that they recovered bomb making materials. Does that concern everyone about whether he may not be a lone wolf? I think potentially that could point to the fact that maybe he's not. I think it's too early to declare him a lone wolf. I think they really have to do a lot more investigation before they can say that. But as this investigation uncovers more and more things, it was a little bit unusual that he really doesn't have much of a footprint on social media, 'cause most 20 year olds certainly do most. Be interesting to see what his cell phone uncovers, a search warrant on his cell phone, what tracking his vehicle, what that uncovers. Was he doing recons at that location? Did he scope it out? Those are some of the questions that we have. How about the investigation and the questioning of his parents? We know right now that the AR-15 belonged to the father, or at least he purchased it. I don't think it's illegal in Pennsylvania to purchase an AR-15 and have it in your house. And I don't know whether he had it locked up or whether the son had access to it or whether the son had a rifle shotgun permit. I don't know any of those things yet. The FBI hasn't released that. Mike, your thoughts? - Yeah, Billy, so far as we know, this seems like a, we don't know definitively if he's part of something or he's definitely a lone wolf, but the bomb making stuff material, whatever it is, whatever quantity is, that concerns me because like you say, you've got to go to someone who's gonna teach you a little bit. Maybe he's got stuff off the internet. He's bought something from Amazon, a book on how to make bombs. He's gone on YouTube or whatever it happens to be. We wanna know that. We wanna know who he's communicating with. But it might not take too much to convince this kid to do something like this, whether he figures it out on his own or whether somebody puts him up to it or something like that or somebody talks him into it. But it's dangerous, it's dangerous. And they, I think for the better part right now of common sense, they gotta consider the fact that even though he doesn't have much of a presence, that doesn't mean he's not talking to somebody. And maybe he's not on a phone. We don't know, or communicating with somebody, but the chances are he's probably communicating. I would think he must have said something to at least one person fairly recently about this idea of hurting the president because I'm wondering when did they announce that President Trump would be speaking at that location. And from that point on, maybe say that was like two weeks ago, whatever they arranged it, two weeks ago. I wanna know what did he do those last 14 days before yesterday? Did he scope out that area? Was he seen in that area? You've got himself a video from ring cameras in the area, whatever. You got even if it's rural. I wanna know where he's traveled. Did he scope that? I imagine he did because you just don't pick out one particular building. You gotta, you know, you gotta walk around, you gotta figure out what's the good best vantage point. But I wanna know all these things and hopefully the FBI will do a good job and they'll make the report open and not hide anything because we need to know the truth, whether or not it's how ugly it is, we need to know it. - Absolutely. According to the New York Times, the FBI has not found a manifesto and the suspect had never been under FBI investigations. The official confirmed that Mr. Crooks did not have an unusual online history for a 20 year old man. He liked to play chess, video games, and was learning how to code according to a review of his online activities. Two former classmates who attended Bethel Park High School with the gunman said they had not noticed any obvious warning signs. One of his classmates, Zach Bradford said he had taken American history and government classes with him that he appeared to be incredibly intelligent and that his views in high school seemed slightly right-leaning. Mr. Bradford said he remembered a couple of instances in which classmates gave Mr. Crooks a hard time, but he was shocked when he heard that Mr. Crooks had been identified as the shooter. He said I honestly would never have expected this. The gunman appears to have graduated in 2022 according to a video recording of that year's graduation ceremony. School officials did not immediately respond to messages on Sunday and one teacher said the staff had been instructed not to talk to the news media. The gunman was killed, and of course we're talking about Thomas Crooks. My secret service agents on Saturday after he fired from an elevated position outside the outdoor rally venue where Mr. Trump was speaking, according to the secret service. An AR-15-type semi-automatic rifle found next to Mr. Crooks' party was purchased by a family member who we now know to be his father, according to an official brief on the investigation. Law enforcement officials found materials for explosive devices, and Mr. Crooks' core, and believe they have found a third at his residence, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation. Former FBI official said the bureau's behavioral analysis unit would try to build a profile of a gunman to understand his motivation. The FBI is running the investigation. We'll cast a wide net, interviewing friends and family members and scouring the internet to prove he might have left or in a journal. This remains an active and ongoing investigation, and the government did not have a criminal history reflected in Pennsylvania courts records. A voter registration card showed Mr. Crooks a Republican registration. The law, we said this earlier, a campaign finance record show he donated $15 for the progressive turnout project, a liberal voter turnout for the Democratic Donation Platform Act blue in January 2021. So that is all according to the New York Times. As new information comes in, we will surely report it to you, but that's what we have so far. Simply a shocking event, an event we don't want to see in our country period, whether it's Democrat, Republican, and anyone that doesn't 100% speak out against this is really not a very good human being, in my opinion. - Mike? - Yeah, Billy, this is the time for some self-reflection for everyone, me and you and Phil and everybody. Be careful what you say to people about candidates. Be careful that what the words you use, how you describe them, all of that stuff, because people listen and we may think it's just a throwaway line or something like that, but people may take things to heart and they may find direction in what you're saying and they read stuff off the internet, they see the stations on TV, which don't do really a lot of investigative journalism, it's all just digging up dirt and throwing it at people and calling people horrific names. Everybody should step back in including all the stations, all the newspapers, all the politicians, and just ratchet it all down to something reasonable and act like adults, and so cut down on the amount of verbiage, violent verbiage out there that's suggesting all kinds of people that are danger to our democracy and our country's gonna just be destroyed in the next 90 days before the election, something like that, all kinds of ridiculous stuff that you hear, it's time to cut that all out and get rid of that because we can see what the results are, this is the kind of stuff you get people acting violently and this is a stain, it is a stain, we're supposed to be the greatest country in the world, we are a Republican form of democracy, we're supposed to be the greatest country on earth and look where we are, and this is what we're talking about, look where we are today, this is embarrassing, it's disgusting. - Absolutely, basketball Jones, you're right, I should mention the name of the deceased Corey Camparatori, he's a firefighter, he lost his life attending a Donald Trump rally, shot in the head, he's a firefighter, we pray for his soul and for his family members who undoubtedly are grieving at this time. The two victims who were critical are David Dutch, he's 57 years old, he's from New Kensington, Pennsylvania and James Copenhagen, 74 of Moon Township, Pennsylvania, I do not know what their conditions are right now other than that they are critical and that's all I can tell you right now. So, Mike, your final thoughts? - Final thoughts, we should all be ashamed of what happened, this is a stain on our country, it's disgusting, there's no way to say anything about it other than that and we should just be, all just be real reflective, self reflective and how we discuss these things in the media and what we say to each other because, again, other people, you don't know, there's a lot of nuts out there that are willing to do ridiculous things like this and take human life and be suggestive and be very suggestive about what they do and very deliberate about things that they do and endanger other people and kill other people in their wild, in their wild machinations. So, time for self reflection and we should pray for the families, the Mr. Dutch family and Copenhagen and the firefighter, I didn't know who was, I didn't get his name, Corey. - Corey, Corey, Corey, Corey. - Okay, okay. - The cafeteria family, we should pray for them and just pray for our country 'cause we need it. - Absolutely. - J.V., we are not enemies, but friends, we must not be enemies. Through passion, may have strained, it must not break up bonds of affection. Abraham Lincoln, great quote, great outstanding quote. Kim Allison, J.V., Kim Allison, just I wanna thank you. Kim Allison's one of our moderators. She's such a huge supporter of this show. I appreciate everything that she does. Johanna James, I thought you had something else to say, but that's okay. Lieutenant Peter Pranzo, welcome and thanks for stopping by with Rachella, two of our other great moderators, great people, great friends of the show. Folks, we will keep following this as new revelations come in. This is a political season. Of course, the presidential election is in November. And just remember, we used to be able to talk to people that disagreed with us and not have any problems with it. It seems that we've lost that ability as a country, as a nation, perhaps, maybe it is, let's blame the media. They deserve to be blamed, they absolutely do. So those are my final thoughts. I wanna thank everyone for tuning in tonight. Mike and I, I was away and I wasn't able to report on this as it happened, I was sort of, I felt like I was out of the mix and so did Mike. So we wanted to be able to report on it as soon as we were both available to do so. - So thank you so much for tuning in tonight. - Yes, thank you. - Have a great night, Mike, you have just a few words, final words. - Just thank everybody. We appreciate all, you know, your, you know, what this thing is, the chat, we appreciate all that stuff because that gives us ideas and gives us things to talk about here on the show. And we know that you're getting it, you're listening, you're interacting with. Thank you very, very much. Folks, have a great night and God bless from police officer, Bill Cannon and Professor Mike Geary. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Yeah laughter, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪