Note-it Post
a not completely wild guess about how Trump shooter Thomas Crooks got on the building roof with no ladder or rope- confirmed. But I didn't know he also used a spycam drone
I posted this as a note a few hours ago: video—apparently from a cellphone—of Thomas Crooks, alone, pacing around and checking out the crowd on the other side of the fence, apparently next to the building where he later fired his AR15 from the rooftop.
Now I know [or can make a pretty good guess] why no ladder or rope was found- the pipes running up the side of the building behind Crooks make it easy, no assistance required. Not just easy, but fast. I think Thomas Crooks was waiting for that moment when everyone at the edge of the crowd was looking somewhere else, so he could climb a pipe to the roof, where his rifle was already stashed.
As far as I know, I’m the first person to notice this. But it’s a big Internet.
twitter.com/i/status/1813628879292055766
Edit: Unsurprisingly, someone else figured out much the same thing, a couple of days ago:
“Pittsburgh's Action News 4 has learned from multiple sources that Crooks was spotted at the rally, photographed as suspicious and officers were actively looking for him when he made his way onto the roof.
Law enforcement sources say Crooks was able to access the roof by climbing over an air conditioning unit adjacent to the building.”
Wednesday, July 24, 2024: FBI Director Christopher Ray added more details in his Congressional testimony today.
Photos of the AC units, ducts, and pipes that seem to have allowed Crooks easy access to the building rooftop:
From a July 24, 2024 article in Gizmodo: Trump Shooter Used Drone Like a 'Rearview Mirror' Before Assassination Attempt
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old man who tried to kill Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, used a drone before the rally “like a rearview mirror” and googled facts about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, according to new testimony Wednesday from FBI director Christopher Wray.
The drone was found in the car Crooks used to get to the Trump rally, and while there aren’t any known photos or videos of the drone from that day, according to Wray, the FBI was able to reverse engineer the flight path. Crooks flew the drone for about 10 minutes, from about 3:50 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Wray said, about 200 yards away from where Trump would ultimately be speaking. Trump ultimately took the stage at 6:03 p.m. and the first shot was fired at 6:11 p.m., according to CBS News…
Welcome to the 21st Century, where high-tech “surveillance and covert operations” are no longer an exclusive preserve of intelligence agency black budgets, and lightweight, stable high-power rifle platforms like copies of the AR15 are sold by the millions every year. Where everyone can own all the gear to be their own James Bond, their own Jackal. Welcome to 21st Century Modernity. The lid is off and limit is out there in the sky, whether it’s… I’m just going to stop without listing anything. The list is too scary for me to post explicitly. Use your own imaginations. You’ll get what I’m saying, some of you.
Let’s all work on treating each other better. It’s usually a safe enough option, as a first resort. I don’t think humans are perfect, perfectible, or even particularly good. I think acting badly at times comes more easily than acting good. But we don’t have to be this bad. If you’re American, you hear the tone of where things are at these days. We can do better than this.