We have a TON of new information coming in today about what happened with that sniper.
While I’ve already covered a lot of it (bookmark: WLTReport.com) I came across this video from my friend Kevin Paffrath (MeetKevin on YouTube) and it’s thee best breakdown I’ve seen anywhere.
So I wanted to share it with you.
It’s crazy that a finance YouTuber is giving this story better coverage than almost all of the “Legacy Media” combined, but he is.
And of course he’s much more than just a “finance YouTuber” but that’s how most people know him.
So please enjoy:
Full transcript here if reading is easier:
You don’t have that position secured. That’s inexcusable. I used to be a SWAT medic, one of the first SWAT medics in the United States. I can tell you that we would start practicing sniping against terrorists at 100 yards, and we would shoot at balloons. That’s not a hard shot at all. Within 130 yards, from an elevated position with a clear line to the president, and nobody is safeguarding that building. That’s inexcusable. Anyone who has called this former president an existential threat has blood on their hands, and that’s President Biden.
We have new information on the sniper counterattack versus the Trump shooter. We’re going to talk about it in this video. First, in the event that you’re religious, this is wild, maybe even if you’re not religious. Supposedly, the flag at the Trump rally right before Trump came on stage to speak got tangled up and had to be untangled. This is what it looked like right before Trump’s speech. If you don’t believe it, some folks are saying it’s from a different rally or some other day, but let’s just say this is from the rally because that’s the mainstream thought. It’s only some people who want to counter everything Trump who are saying otherwise. This is pretty remarkable, especially given the sheer luck that Donald Trump was looking at a presentation, sort of like a PowerPoint slide. He moved his head because he was making a point during the speech, looked away from the presentation to make a point to the audience, then looked back at the PowerPoint presentation on the screen.
A particular poster mentions that we were 0.5 seconds away from Civil War. We don’t need to speculate on what would have happened in the event of a severe injury or something worse here for America. Let’s be clear, this is an assault on democracy. There’s no place for political violence here. Whether you like Trump or not, we don’t solve our problems by killing people.
There is some new information about the shooter. First, I want to send my condolences to the person who shielded his daughter. If this is correct, this is the individual who was shot in the head while shielding his daughter from the shots. This is very sad, and this person is no longer with us after this tragic shooting.
Let’s talk about the shooter. We have new aerial footage, and this footage is actually quite useful. Initially, yesterday, when we looked at the footage with the prevailing information we had, we believed the shooter was at the far end of that rooftop. Take a look here. This was the mainstream thought at the time: the shooter was on this end of the roof. The reason for that was the angle of the footage. It made it seem like he was very close to the edge, but because of how flat that roof is, it’s actually quite possible that the shooter was much further down that rooftop. When you combine it with this aerial footage, you get some interesting new information. The shooter may have actually been closer to the parking lot side, even though he looked like he was closer to the other side. This is another example where perspective can provide so much detail. Given how flat that roof is and how far back those individuals were in the tree, they were actually able to see his side profile from that distance, maybe another 50 feet away. Quite remarkable, and this gives us a lot more color here.
What’s fascinating is the counter snipers were here on the roof, and Donald Trump was over here, which means the shooter had the benefit of potential partial tree coverage—not for his shot at Trump, but for the snipers’ return fire. It may have been difficult to see him. Remember, Trump was shot at roughly 6:15 p.m. This matters because the snipers would be looking almost exactly west. What happens at 6:00 p.m. when you look towards the west? I’m not making excuses here; there’s a lot to talk about, but I haven’t seen anybody else talk about this. Shoutout to McKay in the office—we were brainstorming about what could have gone wrong with the sniper here. There’s a chance they had tree coverage and sunlight directly in their eyes, which reiterates why it is so stupid of the Secret Service not to have had somebody there.
I think we’re all on the same page that the Secret Service should have had this building covered. Everybody can agree on that. The second thing everybody can agree on is why for 2 or 3 minutes were people shouting “there’s a man with a gun” and nothing happened? When somebody is shouting “gun, gun, gun, man with gun,” the first thing that should happen is the president should be removed from the stage. It’s very simple. Worst case scenario, if everything’s fine, he has a little 2 or 3 minute break, and you put him back up. It’s not mind-blowing.
I’m convinced that local law enforcement and the Secret Service were on the same radio channel, usually a Bravo or Charlie channel for an event. It would have been very simple to report a gun. We believe that did happen; they just didn’t remove the president. Another failure of communication. We see the counter snipers prone on that target before the shooting even begins. This was before Trump took the stage. Counter snipers were scanning the building. This is 42 seconds before—the quality is trash, but we know the famous shot. They’re prone and looking down scope, scanning that building. One thing difficult about that building is that when you have an apex, it’s difficult to see down when you’re on the other side of that apex. Again, not making excuses, but there are other theories as well.
For example, there’s someone posting anonymously on a forum suggesting, “they wouldn’t let me take out the shooters.” My name is Jonathan Willis. I’m the officer in the famous photo of the two snipers on the roof at Trump’s rally. I came here to inform the public that I had the assassin in my sights for at least 3 minutes, but the head of the Secret Service refused to give the order to take out the person. The top brass prevented me from killing the assassin before he took the shots at Trump. I don’t know if that’s true. It’s usually not the head of the Secret Service that makes that call; it would be a squad leader on the ground. That makes me a little suspicious, but it’s interesting.
My thinking is a little different. When you’re facing this flat building with rails, it’s possible they saw the person looking over the edge with a rifle on his side, observing the situation. Through the trees and with the sun, the counter snipers likely couldn’t see a weapon. Law enforcement are trained in shoot/don’t shoot scenarios where you don’t shoot unless you see a firearm.
Now, regarding the actual shooting, I made a short video on this that I posted on X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok. In the video, you see the counter snipers looking down scope, and right before the shooting begins, you see the head bob up. I wonder if they had the shooter in scope, maybe magnified too much, and saw him reach for something. Then they see the gun, and the shooting starts. Look closely: the head bob happens before the first shot. The shock of seeing the gun, and then listen closely. You see the counter snipers jolt back in shock as the shooting starts, then they pull the whole tripod back.
It’s possible the counter sniper saw the gun too late. If he was magnified too much, he might have looked up to confirm, then the shooting starts, and he loses his position. The shooting happens so fast—5 seconds and 27 milliseconds. The biggest failure was not having somebody on that roof. I think we can all agree there was a massive failure here.
Other folks are mentioning DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives in the Secret Service. I don’t know that this would have changed anything, but it’s being discussed on social media. There’s also a lot of focus on physical capability differences between men and women in protective details.
Lastly, the shooter was about 120 yards away, and even with iron sights, it should have been an easy shot for the assailant. This is scary because the Secret Service let someone get within that box. We need to take this seriously and ensure better protection.
If you find my perspective useful, consider subscribing to the channel and sharing the video. Thanks for being here. Goodbye and stay safe.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.