HOWARD ALTMAN
Many questions are being asked in the aftermath of the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump at the fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania. Among them are how the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) counter-sniper (CS) teams reacted before and after Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired shots from the roof of a building less than 450 feet from where Trump was speaking. Those shots killed a man, bloodied Trump, and wounded at least two others.
The War Zone asked three experts – two experienced snipers and one former USSS Special Agent in Charge – to give their perspectives, breaking down how these operations work and what they observed about how CS teams handled what would become the first time a USSS sniper ever actually killed anyone.
Jeff Bruggeman
For 18 years, Jeff Bruggeman was a sniper for the Fairfax City SWAT team. He spent many hours working with the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), often staring through high-powered Leupold scopes on his custom-built bolt-action .308 sniper rifle scanning for potential dangers. He did this during visits by presidents and candidates, as well as while providing overwatch during several inaugurations.
“A lot of people think of snipers as just shooters,” said Bruggeman, now a private security officer. “The primary objective of a sniper is to be eyes and intelligence, relaying a lot of information back.”
Counter-sniper teams generally work together, scanning separate as well as overlapping fields of view to ensure a full picture is gathered of what is taking place around them, Bruggeman said.
Videos emerged on social media showing Secret Service CS teams on the roofs of a group of three barns behind Trump looking through scopes during the rally. One team was on the northern-most barn roof and another on the southern-most.
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