World
What to know about the Secret Service's Counter Sniper Team
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. Secret Service sniper killed the would-be assassin of former President Donald Trump in a split-second decision, taking out the man perched on an adjacent rooftop.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has publicly praised the sniper’s quick work on Saturday. But the Counter Sniper Team is now subject to a review by the Office of the Inspector General, which aims to determine how well the team is “prepared to respond to threats at events.”
The Secret Service was already subject to a more general probe from the Inspector General as well as congressional subpoenas regarding the shooting at the Trump campaign rally, in what has become the most intense scrutiny the agency has faced since President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
Here’s what to know about the agency’s elite sniper group.
Sniper team is ‘very elite and difficult to get into’
The Counter Sniper Team was established in 1971. It provides intelligence and observations of potential threats from far away in an effort to protect U.S. presidents, vice presidents, first ladies and others, according to a 2020 report by the Government Accountability Office on federal tactical teams.
Those who join the team have already worked for the Secret Service for at least two years, according to the agency’s website. They must undergo 11 weeks of counter sniper selection and basic training, along with a color vision test. Counter snipers must have excellent eyesight and hearing.
“It’s very sought after, it’s very elite and difficult to get into,” Pete Piraino, who spent 23 years with the Secret Service, including five years in the presidential protective division, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
They typically work in pairs
The counter snipers are on the look out for threats from far away, even beyond the established security perimeter, said Piraino, who is now vice provost for academics and a criminal justice professor at Tiffin University in Ohio. They often work outdoors, focusing on rooftops and the windows of surrounding buildings.
They typically work in teams of two — one serves as a spotter while the other trains their rifle’s sight on the same area.
“They’re trained to scan an area, remember what they see and come back to scan it again and see if there’s any change,” Piraino said. “It’s not just a matter of picking up their binoculars and looking around. They are trained very thoroughly and specifically with rangefinders and their equipment.”
If they don’t qualify, they don’t work
The counter snipers, code named “Hercules,” can respond to a threat from a distance with their .300 Winchester Magnum rifles, according to Ronald Kessler’s 2009 book, “In the President’s Secret Service.” And they have to prove they can do so on a monthly basis.
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“Counter-Snipers are required to qualify shooting out to a thousand yards each month,” Kessler wrote. “If they don’t qualify, they don’t travel or work.”
The snipers shoot with a rifle called a JAR, said Paul Eckloff, a retired Secret Service agent who served on details protecting three different presidents during his 23-year career.
“You’ve never heard of it because the Secret Service makes them,” Eckloff said.
It stands for “just another rifle” and they’re built specifically for each counter sniper by the Secret Service’s armorer to take into account things like the length of the shooter’s arms, wrists and trigger finger.
Eckloff wouldn’t disclose how many counter sniper teams there are but noted that it’s a finite resource and they could always use more.
What happened?
Police learned of a suspicious character outside the fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, before Trump took the stage. Minutes into his speech, shots were fired.
A counter sniper shot and killed Thomas Matthew Crooks in the seconds after he opened fire from a rooftop some 150 yards (135 meters) from the stage. Secret Service agents threw themselves on top of the former president before hustling him off stage.
Stephen Colo, who retired from the Secret Service in 2003 as an assistant director, told The AP on Sunday that presidential candidates and former presidents don’t typically get the same level of protection as the sitting president.
Colo said he was surprised that the agency had staffed the event with a counter sniper team because there are not many of those highly trained operatives and they are usually reserved for the president.
Kessler told the AP that the Counter Sniper Team should not be the focus of all of the scrutiny and investigations. He said the Secret Service members working closer to Trump should have called off the speech and moved him to safety as soon as they heard reports of a suspicious person in the crowd and then on a nearby rooftop.
“They should have just evacuated as soon as there was any hint of danger,” Kessler said.
Trump was not seriously injured and two days later he arrived in Milwaukee, with his right ear bandaged, to the adulation of his supporters at the Republican National Convention.
The shooting had more serious ramifications for others at the rally. Former fire chief Corey Comperatore was shot and killed and two other people were wounded.
Cheatle, the Secret Service director, told ABC News on Tuesday that the sniper who shot Crooks made a “split-second decision.”
“They have the ability to make that decision on their own. If they see that it’s a threat and they did that in that instance,” she said.
“And I applaud the fact that they made that decision and didn’t have to check with anybody and thankfully neutralized the threat.”
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Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.
FIFA’s on-field officials for the World Cup will insist on keeping matches moving by taking rule changes designed to limit time-wasting seriously, the sport’s governing body said Sunday with the start of the 48-team tournament now less than two weeks away.
Also among the points of emphasis for referees and officials: a commitment to issuing red cards to any player who covers his mouth while talking to an opponent in a “confrontational situation,” FIFA said.
“We are continuing on trying to achieve an objective, which is to eliminate from matches — as much as possible — the disruption of the tempo of the match,” said Pierluigi Collina, FIFA chief refereeing officer and chair of the referees committee.
Other issues that referees will be mindful of during the tournament:
— If a player leaves the field of play after being angered by an official’s decision, a red card can be issued.
— To speed up play, referees can institute a five-second visual countdown on goal kicks and throw-ins. If the goal kick is not taken before the end of that countdown, a corner kick will be awarded to the opposing team. If the throw-in is not executed by the end of the five-second count, a throw-in for the opponents will be the reward. It’s along the same lines of the so-called eight-second goalkeeper rule that has been in place for some time to release the ball after making a save.
— Players getting subbed off must leave the field within 10 seconds, except for special situations such as ones involving injuries or a security issue.
— The protocol for Video Assistant Referee, or VAR, is being clarified in certain areas. VAR can be used to check when red cards are issued following a clearly incorrect second yellow card, or when cards are issued in the case of mistaken identity. Incorrectly awarded corner kicks can also be checked by VAR, FIFA said.
Players covering their mouth with a hand, arm or shirt will be given red cards if referees deem it not to be a friendly conversation, FIFA said. Conversations that are not confrontational but still have players shielding their mouths from public view will continue to be permitted without penalty.
“Confrontational … a completely different story,” Collina said.
There has also been a clarification on VAR protocol “regarding clear offenses committed by the attacking team before the ball is in play at a corner kick or free kick” that directly impacts goals, penalty kicks or sanctions.
VAR can be used in those moments and “if the referee determines that an offense occurred before the ball was in play, the appropriate disciplinary action will be taken.”
But all the emphasis on speedy play won’t necessarily mean quicker matches. There will be three-minute water breaks midway through each half of every match, FIFA said.
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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
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Hezbollah has begun unleashing “game changing” waves of “lethal” nighttime drones against Israel, a defense expert warns, with the attacks contributing to casualties, defense breaches and plunging parts of the border region into chaos, according to reports.
Escalating deployments by Hezbollah had also prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene an emergency security meeting on May 30 following a surprise Hezbollah strike, amid reports of “utter chaos” as Israeli forces scrambled to respond.
“These nighttime drones are the very small Category 1 and Category 2 drones,” defense expert and Draganfly CEO Cameron Chell told Fox News Digital.
“They are generally used by squads on the ground to go and conduct tactical lethal missions or surveillance missions right in theater immediately. What they are able to do is use thermal sensors to be able to fly at night and use heat signatures to spot IDF troops,” he said.
ISRAEL SAYS IT IS STRIKING HEZBOLLAH TARGETS IN LEBANON
Rockets are launched from Lebanon towards Israel amid escalating tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from the Israeli side of the border. (Gil Eliyahu/Reuters)
“Hezbollah now has nighttime capabilities, which is game changing,” Chell added.
“What you will see is an escalation of the use of drones and the innovation of asymmetric warfare in that particular area by Hezbollah,” he warned.
Chell’s comments came amid reports of makeshift defenses with nets being deployed against the backdrop of a significant shift in the conflict.
Israeli soldiers have resorted to buying commercial fishing and soccer nets to entangle the incoming aerial threats, according to reports.
“This means that there is a whole other set of countermeasures that the IDF has to put in place, whether it is electronic jamming, net guns or the use of netting just to put in front of installations or in front of vehicles to try to stop the final impact of the drone if it is a strike drone,” Chell added.
HEZBOLLAH DISARMAMENT DEADLOCK RISKS CIVIL WAR, ANALYSTS SAY, AS US PREPARES FOR ISRAEL–LEBANON TALKS
Smoke rises following a projectile attack amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel near Shlomi in northern Israel on Oct. 19, 2024. (Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)
“The IDF will have to change a lot of their tactics regarding their ability to move around and conduct operations at night. Now they will have to factor in the fact that Hezbollah has nighttime capabilities to at least do observation using thermal cameras, as well as strike capabilities.”
Netanyahu called a meeting with top officials following an intense Hezbollah rocket and drone blitz that caught the military off guard on Saturday.
According to a report by Channel 13, the Israeli army was surprised by the scale of the fire as well as Hezbollah’s decision to shift its operational policy in response to the expansion of Israel’s ground operations beyond the Litani River.
IDF SOLDIERS ACCUSE UN PEACEKEEPERS OF ENABLING HEZBOLLAH TERRORISTS AMID INCREASING CEASE-FIRE VIOLATIONS
Hezbollah terrorists holding rifles are shown in this image. A “terrorist network” funded and operated by Hezbollah and Iran was foiled in the United Arab Emirates, according to a report. (Fadel Itani/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Reports from the ground described “utter chaos” in parts of the north. While rockets were said to have hit the cities, Hezbollah simultaneously launched waves of drone strikes.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has also touted the militant group’s drone capabilities, calling them an effective weapon against Israeli forces operating near and inside southern Lebanon.
Netanyahu has also described Hezbollah’s drone capabilities as a major threat given the difficulty in detecting them.
“Hezbollah have got a supply line or supply chain of some sort set up,” Chell added before stating that they are not “using stuff that is groundbreaking; this is very old technology and tactics that they are using.”
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“That said, somebody is making the equipment available to Hezbollah — whether it is coming via Iran, China, Russia, Afghanistan or the black market, someone is getting enough product and feeding it into their supply chains,” Chell warned.
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At Frankfurt am Main’s central station, Deutsche Bahn also warns passengers on board the trains about pickpockets. Travellers leaving the station are confronted with the misery of drug addicts who congregate in Kaiserstrasse and the surrounding streets, whether they like it or not. Police are usually on the scene, but from the outside little seems to have changed in recent years.
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And the figures on violence at Germany’s railway stations are causing headaches for many officials. Since this weekend the federal police have stepped up their presence at stations in ten major German cities. Yet when it comes to crime at stations, Frankfurt does not sit at the top of the list.
The stations particularly affected by crime in 2025 were the central station in Leipzig, with 859 violent offences, the central station in Dortmund with 735 and the central station in Berlin with 654.
Most recently, the fatal attack on a conductor on a regional train in Rhineland-Palatinate last February caused widespread shock. It was followed by a debate about the scale of attacks on Deutsche Bahn staff.
Expert: “No railway station in Germany is a no-go area”
In total, according to police statistics, 27,800 violent offences were committed at railway stations last year. These included 980 recorded knife attacks and more than 2,200 registered sexual offences. Some 5,660 acts of violence were directed against federal police officers. According to the police, the suspected perpetrators were significantly more often non-Germans than Germans.
Criminologist Dirk Baier does describe stations as “hotspots of crime”. But in an interview with WELT the expert also explains that violence at stations is particularly visible precisely because the police presence there is higher and because it is reported on more frequently. “From my point of view there is no major station in Germany that is a no-go area.”
Indeed, directly opposite Frankfurt’s central station many people – including families and women – have no difficulty doing their shopping in the chemists and the supermarket.
Police officers at stations instead of at border controls
The deputy leader of the CDU group in the Bundestag, Günter Krings, wants to improve public safety at stations through technical measures such as more cameras, while at the same time relieving pressure on police officers. Discussions on this are currently taking place within the coalition parties.
The AfD describes Germany’s railway stations as “spaces of fear” and is calling for tougher sentences, more consistent deportations and an increased police presence.
However, the Greens’ domestic policy spokesman, Marcel Emmerich, believes that while video surveillance can be useful, it cannot replace officers on the ground. The government, he says, is deploying thousands of federal police officers for “expensive, pointless and unlawful border controls” instead of strengthening their presence at stations.
Weapons and alcohol bans at stations
As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, weapons bans now apply from Friday to Sunday at Munich’s central station and the Ostbahnhof in the Bavarian capital, as well as at the main stations in Nuremberg, Regensburg and Rosenheim. This means that knives and dangerous tools may not be carried there at weekends. According to SZ, officers can stop, question and search people even without a specific reason.
An alcohol ban has been in force at Cologne’s central station (Hbf) since April; it now also applies to the stations in Bonn, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, Dortmund and Münster.
Deutsche Bahn has domiciliary rights at its stations and can therefore enforce its own rules there, such as an alcohol ban.
Violence at railway stations is by no means solely a German phenomenon, as the recent knife attack in Winterthur in Switzerland shows.
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