The Answer My Friend

[Zeon Mason]

I wonder if the 2 counter snipers on the roof saw Crooks as he was moving across the roof to get to the position where Crooks thought (mistakenly) that the tree would block the counter snipers LOS on the other roof top.

You can see there’s an abrupt readjustment of the counter snipers tripod just before he (presumably) was the one who fired one shot to take out Crooks only AFTER Crooks fired 8 shots!?

Haven’t heard any specifics statement yet from the counter snipers. Only a general statement that there is  “leadership” problem that needs to be corrected.

Hopefully there will be testimony from the counter sniper team about the specifics before they mysteriously disappear never to be seen again.

[Royell Storing]

You must have gotten that good from watching "Gunsmoke". I mentioned that show because I'm enjoying some good color episodes of the show this summer. The editing, pace, cast and guest stars are monumental compared to today, but that's from my Boomer perspective. I guess the show did reach its pinnacle when it stopped. "Rockford Files' is another show I would watch, but a few years ago I did get caught up through DVDs from the library.



Screen capture from Jim Copenhaver's phone about three minutes before the shooting. The gunman (circled) still has to reach a point, by my guest, 15-to-20 feet to his left (camera-right). Trump seems to be forward of the trajectory to Mr. Copenhaver (assuming Copenhaver was in the same location when shot as when he was filming).

    Once they went to Color Episodes, the overall quality of Gunsmoke episodes was in The Dumper. Generally, upon replacing Burt Reynolds with Ken Curtis/ "Festus", the quality was steadily heading downhill.

[Zeon Mason]

If Jerry is correct then the answer why the snipers were observing Crooks but did not fire immediately is because although they may have seen Crooks raise his head , they apparently saw no rifle .

This may be the explanation for Crooks missing an otherwise not so difficult target about 6’ high by 2’ wide at the range of 130 yd.

Speculation: Crooks DID see the snipers and knew they would probably open fire on him within seconds of spotting  him raising his rifle to the roof ridge level. Therefore Crooks attempted a hasty aim with shots #1 and #2 followed by 6 rapid shots more erratic.
Crooks therefore was committing “suicide by cop “ but wanted it to be a dramatic event of taking out a VIP in the process so that he would become an infamous character like Oswald in the history books.

The CT option is that Crooks was involved with some foreign element that he made contact and though he was embarking on a new high paying exciting career as a “mechanic”.