The would-be assassin who opened fire at Donald J. Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13 was able to get a clear shot at the former president, as countersniper teams nearby failed to see him in time to thwart the shooting.
The New York Times used drone photography to build a 3-D model and recreate the lines of sight for both the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and three teams of countersnipers — two federal and one local. The analysis shows that Mr. Crooks, 20, who appears to have flown a drone to survey the site the morning of the rally, exploited one of the few blind spots within a rifle’s range of Mr. Trump, raising questions about serious lapses in security planning for the event.
At a contentious hearing on Capitol Hill on Monday, Kimberly A. Cheatle, the Secret Service director, offered few specifics to lawmakers’ repeated questions about sightlines and security breakdowns.
What Secret Service Countersnipers on the North Barn Saw
This is the line of sight that one of two Secret Service teams most likely had just minutes before Mr. Crooks opened fire.
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The gunman was largely concealed by two trees and the slope of a warehouse building roof, which he used as his perch. The warehouse complex, owned by AGR International, was outside the Secret Service’s designated security perimeter, the agency later said.
Stationed on the northernmost barn behind Mr. Trump, one of the Secret Service teams had been facing the gunman’s direction for 30 minutes before violence erupted, according to videos posted on social media and verified by The Times. At one point, team members can be seen standing up and looking in the gunman’s direction with binoculars.
The Times captured its own drone footage three days after the shooting. This footage provides a glimpse into how much the trees might have impaired the countersnipers’ view of the gunman.
The New York Times
Note: This video was captured about seven feet above the roof where a countersniper team was positioned atop the northern barn. The location of the gunman was identified by a cone that is visible between the tree branches, where it was placed by investigators after the shooting.
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The Times used a spatial technique called viewshed analysis to calculate what areas would have been visible from the northern countersniper team’s position, taking into account obstructions like trees and buildings. The analysis confirmed that Mr. Crooks chose a prime spot that allowed him to stay largely out of sight — even from a countersniper team that had been facing his direction for a length of time — as he prepared for the first shot.
What Secret Service Countersnipers on the South Barn Saw
A second Secret Service countersniper team was positioned on the roof of a barn farther to the south and west. It had been monitoring a different area — initially facing away from the gunman, videos posted to social media show.
Video footage shows the countersnipers later turning toward the gunman’s direction one minute and 35 seconds before the first shot was fired. This is the view they would have had when they turned around.
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But the slope of the warehouse roof that the gunman had chosen would have also made it difficult for the south countersniper team to see him as he crawled upward, a Times analysis shows. Only the very top of Mr. Crooks’s head would have been visible in either Secret Service countersniper team’s line of sight, and only while the gunman was hunkered behind the highest point on the roof.
Note: Diagram represents a conservative size of the gunman’s prone body.
Forty-two seconds after the shooting began, Secret Service agents can be heard saying “Shooter down” in video footage. Mr. Crooks was fatally shot by a Secret Service countersniper, the agency later confirmed. It’s likely the shot came from the countersnipers on the south barn, who would have been one of the best positioned.
What Local Law Enforcement Countersnipers Saw
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A third group of three law enforcement countersnipers was stationed in the same warehouse complex as the gunman, but in an adjacent building, according to a local law enforcement official, who was not authorized to comment.
The building that the countersnipers were in did have windows facing the side of the roof of the building that Mr. Crooks climbed up. But it is not known whether they were assigned to any of those windows that day.
The law enforcement official said the countersnipers, who were tasked with watching over the crowds, were positioned on the other side of the building, at the second-floor windows further from the gunman. Here is what the view of one countersniper — facing those attending the rally — might have looked like.
From this view inside the building, the gunman would have been out of the countersnipers’ lines of sight.
Videos and photos reviewed by The Times show what was most likely a fourth countersniper team from a local law enforcement agency roughly 1,000 feet from Mr. Crooks’s position on the roof. The team was visible several times in the hours and minutes before Mr. Trump began his speech. The Times could not confirm whether the team fired at any point during the shooting.
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What the Gunman Saw
The gunman’s spot on a warehouse roof — less than 500 feet from Mr. Trump — provided him with a clear, elevated line of sight.
As he crawled up toward the peak of the roof, its slight slope would have concealed him from the Secret Service countersnipers for a majority of the time. And, once he reached the top, the two trees would have provided some cover from the north countersniper team.
Investigators said that Mr. Crooks appears to have used a drone to survey the rally site before the shooting. The Secret Service did not seek to use drones to provide agents with aerial views of the rally, Ms. Cheatle testified on Monday.
Mr. Crooks was able to fire multiple shots — unimpeded — in Mr. Trump’s direction, injuring Mr. Trump’s right ear. A rally attendee sitting in the bleachers closest to the gunman was fatally shot in the head. Two others in the top row of bleachers to the south were also struck, though they survived.
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Other Security Missteps
Two rows of chain-link fencing divide the Butler Farm Show property from the warehouse complex. It’s unclear if the Secret Service used the fencing to delineate the security perimeters, but the agency later acknowledged that the AGR warehouses were excluded from the secure zone.
Source: Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access (PASDA)
The warehouse complex, which sits next to a state highway and a major road, is accessible to the public. In a video taken an hour before the shooting, Mr. Crooks can be seen in front of the warehouse building he would later use as his perch.
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On the ground, dozens of officers from multiple agencies were also present on the Butler Farm Show grounds, where the rally took place. Ms. Cheatle, the Secret Service director, said on Monday that the AGR building complex was being monitored at the time of shooting, but she did not specify by whom.
An F.B.I. investigation had found that a local SWAT team spotted Mr. Crooks on the roof of a warehouse approximately 18 minutes before Mr. Trump took the stage, Ms. Cheatle also said at Monday’s hearing. The Secret Service had been informed of a potential “suspicious” person through radio communication, but it did not stop Mr. Trump from taking the stage.
Methodology
The Times flew a drone on July 16 over the site of the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump in Butler, Pa., and used the imagery captured by the drone to create a 3-D model of the scene. The Times also used measurements collected on the ground, satellite imagery and references from photos and videos posted on social media to corroborate the dimensions in the model. The positions of the gunman, countersniper teams and the victims were based on sites The Times located from social media videos.
To determine the lines of sight of each countersniper team in the 3-D model, The Times conducted a viewshed analysis — a spatial technique used to calculate what areas would be visible from a specific location in 3-D, taking into account obstructions. The Times used a 1,000-foot radius from the position of the countersnipers for this analysis, which encompassed both the Butler Farm Show grounds and the AGR warehouse complex. The Times placed cameras in the 3-D model at the approximate locations of the gunman’s and the countersniper teams’ elevations to show what their views might have looked like from those vantage points. The gunman’s exact location in the renderings is based on the position where his body was found after he was shot. The specifics of the scopes used by the gunman or the countersnipers on their rifles are not known, and the 3-D renderings are approximate.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Julius Baer has named Goldman Sachs banker Stefan Bollinger as chief executive, an appointment that the Swiss wealth manager hopes will draw a line under a crisis triggered by its exposure to property group Signa.
The company has been without a chief executive since February, when a SFr606mn ($700mn) writedown of its exposure to collapsed property group Signa led to the departure of Philipp Rickenbacher.
Bollinger, a Swiss citizen, who is co-head of private wealth management for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Goldman, will take over at Julius Baer by February next year.
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Julius Baer chair Romeo Lacher said Bollinger’s experience “combines a comprehensive understanding of risk, products, and of how to deliver value to global wealth management clients through building scalable client-centric businesses”.
Several European private bank bosses had been linked with the role during the search process, which was led by headhunters Egon Zehnder.
At one point, the Julius Baer board considered bringing in EFG chief executive Giorgio Pradelli, which led to revived merger talks between the two Swiss banks, according to several people with knowledge of the discussions.
But talks broke down after it became apparent that Swiss regulator Finma would not approve the deal following Julius Baer’s Signa losses.
When Rickenbacher’s departure was announced, Lacher made it clear the new hire would come from outside the group. Rickenbacher’s deputy, Nic Dreckmann, has led the business on an interim basis since February.
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Julius Baer is due to publish its half-year results on Thursday.
Bollinger has been at Goldman for 20 years and been a partner for 14, having previously worked at JPMorgan in London.
Since becoming co-head of private wealth management Emea in 2019, the business has doubled its assets.
“I look forward to working closely with the board, the management team, and all the people of Julius Baer to capitalise on its unique strengths,” he said.
FILE – Christopher Dunn, right, listens to his attorney Justin Bonus from New York City during the first day of his hearing to decide whether to vacate his murder conviction, Tuesday, May 21, 2024, at the Carnahan Courthouse in St. Louis. A Missouri judge on Monday, July 24, 2024, overturned the conviction of Dunn, who has spent more than 30 years in prison for a killing he has long contended he didn’t commit.
Laurie Skrivan/Pool St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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Laurie Skrivan/Pool St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — A Missouri judge on Monday overturned the conviction of Christopher Dunn, who has spent more than 30 years in prison for a killing he has long contended he didn’t commit.
The ruling is likely to free Dunn from prison, but it wasn’t immediately clear when that would happen. He has been serving a sentence of life without parole.
St. Louis Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser’s ruling came several weeks after he presided over a three-day hearing on Dunn’s fate.
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Dunn, now 52, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1990 shooting of 15-year-old Ricco Rogers. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore filed a motion in February seeking to vacate the guilty verdict. A hearing was in May.
Sengheiser, in his ruling, wrote that the “Circuit Attorney has made a clear and convincing showing of ‘actual innocence’ that undermines the basis for Dunn’s convictions because in light of new evidence, no juror, acting reasonably, would have voted to find Dunn guilty of these crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Dunn’s attorney, Midwest Innocence Project Executive Director Tricia Rojo Bushnell, said she was “overjoyed” by the judge’s ruling.
“Now, Chris looks forward to spending time with his wife and family as a free man,” Bushnell said in a statement.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office opposed the effort to vacate Dunn’s conviction. Lawyers for the state said at the May hearing that initial testimony from two boys at the scene who identified Dunn as the shooter was correct, even though they later recanted as adults.
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“That verdict was accurate, and that verdict should stand,” Assistant Attorney General Tristin Estep said at the hearing.
Spokesperson Madeline Sieren said the Attorney General’s Office will appeal.
The decision in Dunn’s case came days after Sandra Hemme was freed from a western Missouri prison after serving 43 years for a murder that a judge determined she didn’t commit. Bailey’s office also opposed Hemme’s release.
A Missouri law adopted in 2021 lets prosecutors request hearings when they see evidence of a wrongful conviction. While Bailey’s office is not required to oppose such efforts, he also opposed another effort in St. Louis that resulted in Lamar Johnson being freed last year after serving 28 years for a murder case in which a judge ruled he was wrongfully convicted.
Rogers was shot May 18, 1990, when a gunman opened fire while he was with a group of other teenage boys outside a home. DeMorris Stepp, 14, and Michael Davis Jr., 12, both initially identified Dunn as the shooter.
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In a recorded interview played at the hearing, Davis said he lied because he thought Dunn was affiliated with a rival gang.
Stepp’s story has changed a few times over the years, Gore said at the hearing. Most recently he has said he did not see Dunn as the shooter. Gore said another judge previously found Stepp to be a “completely unreliable witness” and urged Sengheiser to discount him altogether.
Dunn has said he was at his mother’s home at the time of the shooting. Childhood friend Nicole Bailey testified that she spoke with him by phone that night and he was on a phone at his mother’s house.
Estep, the assistant attorney general, said that alibi could not be trusted and Dunn’s story has shifted multiple times over the years. Dunn did not testify at the hearing.
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The 2021 law has resulted in the the release of two men who each spent decades in prison. In addition to Johnson, Kevin Strickland was freed in 2021 after more than 40 years for three killings in Kansas City after a judge ruled he was wrongfully convicted in 1979.
Another hearing is next month for Marcellus Williams, who narrowly escaped lethal injection and is now facing another execution date.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion in January to vacate the conviction of Williams, who was convicted in the fatal stabbing of Lisha Gayle in 1998. Bell’s motion said three experts determined that Williams’ DNA was not on the handle of the butcher knife used in the killing.
Williams was hours from execution in 2017 when then-Gov. Eric Greitens halted it and appointed a board of inquiry to examine his innocence claim. The board never issued a ruling, and Gov. Mike Parson, like Greitens a Republican, dissolved it last year.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled this month that Parson had the authority to dissolve the board and set a new execution date of Sept. 24.
new video loaded: Secret Service Director Faces Bipartisan Calls to Resign
transcript
transcript
Secret Service Director Faces Bipartisan Calls to Resign
The Secret Service director, Kimberly A. Cheatle, repeatedly refused to answer specific questions in a House oversight committee hearing on security failures that led to an assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump.
“How can a 20-year-old with his father’s AR-15 assault weapon climb onto a roof with a direct 150 yard line of sight to the speaker’s podium without the Secret Service or local police stopping him?” “I would like to know those answers as well, which is why we are going through these investigations to be able to determine that fully.” “Can you answer why the Secret Service didn’t place a single agent on the roof?” ”We are still looking into the advanced process and the decisions that were made.” ”OK, OK. How many Secret Service agents were assigned to President Trump on the day of the rally?” ”Again, I’m not going to get into the specifics of the numbers of personnel.” “Do you really plan to keep avoiding questions and the American people’s questions — ours and the American people’s questions — for the next 60 days?” “I’m not avoiding questions. I want to make sure that I am providing factual and accurate information.” “Certainly. But is there no in between?” “Do you really believe that the majority of this country has confidence in you right now?” “I believe that the country deserves answers, and I am committed to finding those answers and providing those answers.” “Well, look, I believe, Director Cheatle, that you should resign.” “You should have come today ready to give us answers. I call upon you to resign today — today.” “I will be joining the chairman in calling for the resignation of the director. The director has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and tender moment in the history of the country.” “This committee is not known for its model of bipartisanship, but I think today we came together unanimously in our disappointment for your lack of answers.”
