Trump Injured After Shooting at Rally; Bystander, Suspect Killed

The Secret Service definitely slipped up, but we do have to admit that
1) Trump isn't president, so the assigned security detail is much smaller
2) Any campaign rally is just about the hardest sort of event to secure
3) Trump undoubtedly isn't the easiest person to keep safe, especially at a campaign rally (take for example his standing up immediately after being shot, before the situation was fully controlled). I strongly suspect that the Secret Service recommended more security measures than were accepted.

MSG Thomas Currie Not saying you are wrong.

But the guy was on a rooftop 250 yards away. Seems like that should be a no brainier to secure.

SFC Casey O'Mally - that rooftop was closer to 150m, in clear sight of both the stage and the Secret Service supposed "counter sniper" team position, AND people in the audience saw the shooter crawling into position and pointed him out to the police but the Secret Service didn't take out the shooter until after he got off 5-6 shots!
At this point the question becomes whether the Secret Service detail assigned to protect Trump was just incompetent or were they in on it.
That question isn't just a wild conspiracy theory when we remember that their boss called for this less than a week ago. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/miacathell/2024/07/13/biden-put-trump-in-a-bullseye-n2641847

SGT Aaron Atwood I saw that too. But, and it's a very big but, why wasn't that rooftop covered? And why no immediate police response when told by the witness? It's not a good spot to be in for either the USSS or other law enforcement.

LTC Trent Klug We'll never know what was going through the countersniper's mind, but part of me wonders if it wasn't his own version of when Carlos Hathcock had to make the hard decision to fire upon (twice) a Vietnamese child transporting a bicycle chock full of weaponry for the NVA and VC. I can almost hear the "don't make me shoot you, don't make me shoot you," but unlike Carlos the countersniper didn't make the decision until it was already too late. I'd be very, very surprised if said countersniper was still in their employment by this point in time.

Keep in mind that law enforcement counter-snipers have ROE where they almost never have authority to shoot outside the "Self-Defense" and "IMMEDIATE Defense of Others" exceptions. Most street cops will do a mag dump the instant they see anything that might be a gun, but police marksmen are specifically trained for "hostage" situations where the target normally has a gun pointed at someone but the marksman is trained to wait for permission to take the shot.

There is an unsubstantiated report supposedly from the marksman claiming that he had the shooter in his sights and asked to take the shot but was denied until the shooter opened fire. I don't know if that report is true, but it certainly is believable -- especially in light of the apparent inexperience and downright clumsiness of the secret service agents in the protection detail. This very clearly was not the first string team.

The one thing we can be sure of is that mistakes were made. We will probably never know exactly what mistakes were made or who made those mistakes because the entire investigation is internal to the USSS and the FBI, neither of which are going to admit any failures by their people. If they admit any mistakes were made, look for the blame to be put on the Pennsylvania state police or local cops.

MSG Thomas Currie The shooter was seen by witnesses climbing to the roof. There is video of it, yet zero response from law enforcement until the shots were fire. Not to mention, the roof was inside 200 meters from the stage. This is absolutely unforgiveable and I would be saying the same thing had the target been Joey Boombotz.

The security provided was a monumental failure as a person was killed.