BREAKING From #CNN: #Trump rushed from rally after possible shots fired. Stand by for more ...
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/election-biden-trump-07-13-24/index.html
BREAKING Spectrum News reports the county DA as saying the #Trump shooter is dead, and a person in the crowd is also dead. Looking for details ...
BREAKING From #WaPo:
"Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said two people are dead, including an apparent shooter."
BREAKING #CNN is replaying the video ... I specifically heard a Secret Service agent say, "The shooter is down."
Sounds to me like two volleys of shots. The first may have been the shooter. The second may have been the Secret Service. Just my speculation.
BREAKING Wolf Blitzer on #CNN just said he heard what I heard: "The shooter is down."
BREAKING #CNN reports the shooter is dead, one spectator is dead, another spectator is in serious condition.
The shooter's cause of death has not be realized, i.e. suicide or police response.
As someone who served in law enforcement ... PLEASE do not take as fact the various reports being posted right now, especially those not citing a source. Law enforcement will follow the evidence and tell you what happened once they know the truth.
BREAKING #CNN reports that the shooter was killed by the Secret Service.
BREAKING #CNN also repeats unconfirmed reports that the shooter was on a "low roof" outside the perimeter.
#CNN is interviewing a witness who was in the bleachers. He was near the spectator who died. He says the spectator was hit in the head and died instantly. The police covered the victim's head before removing the body.
BREAKING From President #Biden just now on Zombie Twitter:
*****
I have been briefed on the shooting at Donald #Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania.
I’m grateful to hear that he’s safe and doing well. I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information.
Jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for getting him to safety. There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it.
BREAKING #BIden to address the nation in about two minutes.
#BIden says he's tried to reach "Donald." #Trump is with his doctors. Will keep trying to reach him.
Biden condemns the violence, thanks the Secret Service and the state/local police.
Doesn't have all the details, may come back on-air later tonight or release a statement.
The rally should have been allowed to proceed in peace.
"It appears he's doing well."
#CNN reporting a Secret Service report that several shots were fired by the suspect from an elevated position outside the security perimeter. The FBI and ATF are leading the investigation.
#CNN reports that, in addition to the killed spectator, there are now two known injured spectators.
#CNN quotes law enforcement sources as saying witnesses saw a person walking through a field outside the perimeter, then saw him on a roof with a rifle. The witnesses also were outside the perimeter, listening to the rally.
Overnight ... From #CNN: #FBI identifies would-be #Trump assassin as 20-year old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park PA. Crooks was registered Republican but apparently gave $15 to a progressive PAC in January 2021. The deceased suspect had no identifying information on his body.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/14/us/trump-shooting-thomas-matthew-crooks-intl-hnk/index.html
Random #Trump shooter updates I gleaned during lunch, reading reliable sources ...
Other than Trump, three shooting victims. The deceased, I'll keep the graphic description <redacted>, but he died instantly. The other two are critical.
Police found two explosives in the suspect's car, and a third at his residence. (Unclear to me if he was living with his family or on his own.)
I'll be curious to find out what kind of rounds he was using, given the graphic nature of the wounds ... (1/x)
In my lifetime, I've been through many assassinations/attempts -- JFK, MLK, RFK, Wallace, Ford (twice, 0 for 2), Reagan, Scalise, and now #Trump. (Expand the net if you wish to include the FBI Cincinnati office shooting and Paul Pelosi.)
There have been a few incidents over the years at the White House. In 1994, a man crashed a Cessna on the White House lawn. In 2011, a man fired at least seven rounds that hit the White House.
Probably more that I'm forgetting ... (3/x)
Some politicians and pundits are saying, "This is not who we are," but it IS who we are.
It keeps happening. We as a society do nothing about it. The phenomenon goes back to the mid-19th Century. FDR escaped an assassination attempt in Miami in February 1933; one of the bullets killed Chicago mayor Cermak.
Our culture teaches to solve our differences through violence. It's on TV every day. De-escalation is discouraged.
We are a shameful, and shameless, people.
End of sermon. (4/4)
BTW ... The suspect who tried to shoot FDR and who killed Mayor Cermak? Florida executed him by electric chair about a month after the incident.
For or against the death penalty, ya gotta admire the swift justice.
Sadly — tragically — agreed…
@WordsmithFL This country was founded and 'settled' by way of annihilation of the indigenous population and enslavement of Africans. We ARE a violent nation.
@ReneeVoiceBrand This is true.
I was fortunate to have worked for a progressive police department that preached de-escalation. That philosophy was unpopular within the ranks, and we were mocked by other agencies, but we sure had a lot of officers wanting to come work for us.
I try to remember that these days, when I'm in a confrontation, to de-escalate. I'm very confident in my masculinity. I don't have to prove it by getting into a fight.
@WordsmithFL Well stated!
George Wallace, May 15, 1972, six months before the election.
@DavidSalo Yeah, I think yesterday is the closest analogy, although Wallace was never going to get the Democratic party nomination.
I posted earlier that I wonder what would have happened to this week's RNC convention if #Trump had passed. Everyone has been obsessing about how to defrock #Biden. I can't imagine how that convention might go -- if at all.
@WordsmithFL And the SS were informed someone saw a man w a gun on the roof before the shooting and nothing was done. I'm always suspicious that we don't know everything. But in this case, I think we know almost nothing.
@TrueBloodNet I don't believe that "nothing was done." The investigation will determine what really happened. More likely, there wasn't enough time to effectively respond.
As I'm written ad nauseam, don't believe the virtual punditry. Wait for facts. If a mistake was made, we will find out.
@WordsmithFL Actually, what I said was based on what an eye witness reported that HE did and that that he told an SS guy and saw no movement. Now, ITA that I shouldn't have said nothing was done. But certainly not enough. I don't listen to pundits. LOL
I've been out of law enforcement for nearly 40 years, but the principles remain.
The big flaw to me is how that roof wasn't covered. That was the lesson from Dallas, all those elevated positions.
Why wasn't there a police helicopter? Maybe #Trump didn't want the noise. Maybe the rural agencies didn't have one. An elevated platform would have spotted the shooter.
From what I saw on TV, the response on the stage was textbook.
Much still to be learned. We need to be patient. (2/x)