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Trump shooter's assassination attempt shocks former FBI task force officer: 'Blown away'
A veteran Nevada law enforcement officer, who served in the elite FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, said he was left “blown away” after a barrage of gunfire broke out at former President Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania.
Ashton Packe, a retired Las Vegas detective, shared an inside look into the investigation of the assassination attempt in Butler.
“I was initially just blown away,” he said. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing was actually happening because we put so much faith and belief in the system of the Secret Service to protect former presidents, current presidents and their families.”
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Republican candidate former President Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by Secret Service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
Packe applauded the U.S. Secret Service personnel who quickly surrounded the former president without hesitation.
“I think I counted less than three seconds from the initial shot to an agent throwing himself on President Trump’s body,” he said. “I’ve analyzed the video. I’ve gone through it several times myself.”
I was initially just blown away…
Former President Trump was hit in the ear in an apparent assassination attempt by a gunman at a campaign rally on Saturday. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
The law enforcement veteran said the suspect, who was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was “amateur hour.”
“As far as the suspect is concerned, it was amateur hour,” he said. “Anyone you know with an AR-15 rifle or a M4 variant is very effective within 150 yards of where that shot was taken.
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“And so he failed at this, as I’m sure he’s failed at many things in his life,” Packe said.
Former Buffalo Township Fire Chief Corey Comperatore pictured with his daughters in an undated family photo. Authorities say Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attempted to assassinate former President Trump at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, on Saturday struck and killed Comperatore in the crossfire. Secret Service agents returned fire, killing Crooks. (Helen Comperatore/Facebook)
Corey Comperatore was attending the rally when he was killed in the gunfire. Packe praised Comperatore’s quick decision to use his body as a shield against the bullets flying toward his wife and daughter.
“It’s always about the victims. There was a victim that died there yesterday,” he said. “A man who was there protecting his daughter through his body when the shots rang out, just like the Secret Service threw their bodies on President Trump.”
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“And that was the job of that father, and so I think we need to talk about victims and the amazing lives that they lived and not the unfortunate, horrible decisions of one individual,” he said.
Police snipers return fire after shots were fired while Republican presidential candidate former President Trump was speaking at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Packe said that he thinks that Americans will begin to realize in the coming days the severity of the attack on the former president.
“I don’t think a lot of Americans realize just how bad last night could have been, and in the weeks following could have been, had Mr. Trump had been killed,” he said.
The law enforcement veteran said that his hope is that this attack would prompt the country to “come together.”
“It’s my hope that we as a country can come together and take a deep breath and realize that, you know, most of us are a little left. Most people are in the middle or slightly right or slightly left,” he said.
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A federal appeals court on Friday struck down California’s ban on openly carrying guns across most of the state.
In a 2–1 decision, the San Francisco-based Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled California’s ban on open carry in counties with more than 200,000 people — covering roughly 95% of the state’s population — violates the Second Amendment, according to Reuters.
U.S. Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, writing for the majority, said the ban conflicts with the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which requires gun regulations to be consistent with the nation’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation,” Reuters reported.
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U.S. Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke appears in a video released by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals March 20, 2025. (9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals/Handout via Reuters)
“The historical record makes unmistakably plain that open carry is part of this Nation’s history and tradition,” VanDyke wrote. “It was clearly protected at the time of the founding and at the time of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
VanDyke also noted that California previously allowed residents to openly carry holstered handguns for self-defense without penalty until 2012.
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A pistol is concealed in a belt. (iStock)
“That changed only when California enacted its urban open-carry ban barely over a decade ago in 2012,” he said. “In doing so, California joined a tiny minority of states to have adopted such severe restrictions on open carry.”
The decision overturned part of a 2023 ruling by a lower court that had dismissed a lawsuit filed in 2019 by gun owner Mark Baird, while rejecting his challenge to open-carry licensing in smaller counties, according to Reuters.
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A retail store in San Ramon, Calif., July 21, 2019. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
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In October, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and other gun groups said they were suing California over the state’s ban on Glock-style guns with features known as switches that allow them to be converted to fully automatic weapons.
The NRA was joined by the Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, Poway Weapons & Gear, and two NRA members in challenging the state’s ban.
Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.
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San Francisco, CA
Philadelphia Eagles to play San Francisco 49ers in NFL playoffs. Here’s what you need to know.
The Philadelphia Eagles will begin the playoffs against the San Francisco 49ers in the wild-card round next weekend at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Birds (No. 3 seed) had a chance to earn the No. 2 seed with a win, but lost to the Washington Commanders in the regular season finale.
Here’s what you need to know about the matchup vs. the 49ers and more.
Which day will the Eagles and 49ers play?
The date and time of the wild-card round matchup between the Eagles and 49ers have yet to be announced, but playoff games are scheduled for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Two games will take place Saturday, three will happen Sunday and the final first-round matchup will be on Monday night.
Eagles and 49ers postseason history
The Eagles and 49ers have only met twice in postseason history, most recently in the NFC championship game in the 2022 season.
The Eagles won that game, 31-7, before falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII. In that game, the 49ers were decimated at quarterback as Brock Purdy and Josh Johnson suffered injuries.
After Johnson exited, Purdy returned to the game in the third quarter, but he was unable to throw the football beyond a few yards. The injuries to San Francisco’s quarterbacks led to the NFL approving a rule change that allows teams to play an emergency quarterback if the starter and backup are injured.
The Eagles are 1-1 vs. San Francisco all-time in the playoffs. Philadelphia’s loss to the 49ers in the playoffs happened in the wild-card round in 1996.
The title game in the 2022 season between the Eagles and 49ers started a rivalry that boiled over into 2023.
In 2023, the 49ers traveled to Lincoln Financial Field in Week 13 and dominated the Eagles, 42-19. The loss started the infamous collapse for the Eagles to end the season as the Birds lost six of the final seven games, including the playoff exit vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The loss to the Niners in the 2023 season also featured Eagles security chief Dom DiSandro and then-49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw being ejected from the game after a scuffle on the sideline.
The Eagles and 49ers haven’t played each other since the 2023 season.
How the Eagles and 49ers got here
The Eagles went 11-6 in the 2025 season and won the NFC East for the second consecutive year, which ended a 20-year stretch of the division not having a repeat winner.
The Niners had a chance to earn the No. 1 seed, but fell to the Seattle Seahawks Saturday night. The 49ers finished the year with a 12-5 record to earn the No. 6 seed.
DENVER — The Broncos have checked off their second goal of the season.
Denver officially clinched the AFC’s No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs with Sunday’s 19-3 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
As the top seed, the Broncos will receive a first-round bye in the 2025 playoffs and will host their first playoff game of the year in the Divisional Round on Saturday, Jan. 17 or Sunday, Jan. 18 at Empower Field at Mile High.
The Broncos, the lone team in the AFC to receive a first-round bye, will host the lowest remaining seed in the AFC playoff field in the Divisional Round. Denver’s possible opponents for its playoff opener include the Texans, Bills, Chargers and the yet-to-be-determined winner of the AFC North. If the Broncos earn a win in the Divisional Round, they would also host the AFC Championship Game.
Denver finished the 2025 regular season with a 14-3 mark, which is tied for the most regular-season wins in franchise history. The Broncos earned the No. 1 seed over the Patriots (14-3) due to a better record in games against common opponents.
The Broncos are the No. 1 seed in the AFC for the first time since 2015, when they went on to win Super Bowl 50. Denver has earned the No. 1 seed for an AFC-best ninth time, and two of the Broncos’ three Super Bowl titles have come after earning the No. 1 seed. The Broncos advanced to the Super Bowl in six of the eight previous seasons in which Denver earned the top seed in the conference.
Broncos Head Coach Sean Payton has now led teams to the No. 1 seed on three occasions in his career, and he is one of five coaches to lead two different organizations to a No. 1 seed.
Bo Nix, meanwhile, became the fourth quarterback in franchise history to lead the organization to a No. 1 seed — joining Ring of Famers John Elway, Peyton Manning and Craig Morton.
Learn more about playoff tickets and suites by visiting DenverBroncos.com/Tickets
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