BBC
Witness describes pointing out a gunman to police several minutes before the shooting started, and that he was running around trying to get someone to do something.
Did Trump know and insist on going ahead? “They’re my people!” sort of thinking? That speaks to his mental fitness, right? Couldn’t the Secret Service insist on a brief delay?
Or, was there no way for local police to communicate with the Secret Service? That would be an error in setting up security. In this day and age of cell phones that’s a real oversight.
The gunman was shot by a Secret Service sniper (again, BBC). That’s what I’d expect when a man is firing into a crowd — take him down fast and hard. But that raises the question of how a man was able to get line of sight to Trump without a sniper spotting him first? Shouldn’t the Secret Service figure out the possible firing spots and have them covered?
On a positive note — the sight of agents covering the (former) President with their bodies, risking being shot as part of their duty, is always somewhat inspiring. I just wish it wasn’t something that has become familiar. That these agents are brave does not mean, though, that no one in the chain of command screwed up.
EDIT: this article (again, BBC) has an aerial photograph of the scene showing where the gunman was, and where the sniper was. How could they have left that building unguarded? A clear shot at the stage from 200 yards — that’s a long shot for an amateur, but if the gunman had bought an actual sniper rifle rather than an AR-15, he might have pulled it off.