
Cheatle Calls the 30 Minutes Between Noticing and Neutralizing Shooter ‘a Very Short Period of Time’
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is a woman who has a lot to explain, and it turns out she’s not very good at explaining it.
Cheatle, as you may have heard, was the subject of criticism in the wake of an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
The alleged gunman, who was killed by Secret Service agents after getting off over a half-dozen shots — one of which hit the former president’s ear and might have hit him square in the head had he not turned before the bullet was fired — was able to get within the direct line of sight of Trump without prior intervention from federal agents.
Cheatle’s record came under scrutiny almost immediately after the attack, with conservative activist Mike Cernovich noting Saturday that her profile on the government’s website emphasized diversity and noted that her prior experience, before becoming the 27th director of Secret Service, was senior director of global security at PepsiCo.
Director of Secret Service pic.twitter.com/N2GDHxujR3
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) July 14, 2024
“[Cheatle] is responsible for successfully executing the agency’s integrated mission of protection and investigations by leading a diverse workforce composed of more than 7,800 Special Agents, Uniformed Division Officers, Technical Law Enforcement Officers, and Administrative, Professional, and Technical personnel,” the profile read. (Emphasis ours.)
Diversity has not managed to save a single person under the Secret Service’s protection, at least that we know about, which makes the prominence given to that word just a little bit odd. And the fact that it makes it look like Cheatle was a diversity hire isn’t her only issue, although we’ll get to that in a bit.
Instead, it’s probably worth talking about her standards for her agents charged with protecting potential targets.
ake, for instance, the roughly 30 minutes that reportedly elapsed between the time the shooter, Thomas Crooks, was initially spotted on the roof of a building and when he was “neutralized,” which is to say killed.
In an interview Monday with ABC News, Cheatle called that “a very short period of time.”
Pittsburgh station WPXI-TV reported Monday that “Crooks was spotted by law enforcement on a roof nearly 30 minutes before shots were fired that injured Trump, killed a former fire chief, and injured two others in the crowd.”
“Channel 11′s Nicole Ford confirmed that Beaver County’s [emergency service unit] team had eight members at the rally, including snipers and spotters,” the report said.
“According to Ford’s sources, one of them noticed a suspicious man on a roof near the rally at 5:45 p.m., called it in and took a picture of the person. We have learned from our sources the person in that picture is Thomas Crooks. We’re told it’s not clear if Crooks had a gun with him at that point,” WPXI reported.
“26 minutes after the second picture of Crooks was taken by law enforcement and the information called in, shots were fired from the roof of the American Glass Research building. Seconds later, a Secret Service sniper returned fire and killed Crooks.”
full story at https://www.westernjournal.com/cheatle-calls-30-minutes-noticing-neutralizing-shooter-short-period-time/
Categorised in: Canadian News