A few minutes ago, a friend of mine pointed out something that no one seems to be talking about: an apparent gunshot wound on the leg of Thomas Crooks.
I saw this on bodycam footage released by local police, seen here. There are two marks, one below and to the side of Crooks’ right knee. The other is above his right knee. The marks were odd enough to draw my attention, but not enough to make me look at them more carefully, or question how they got there.
At first, they might look like a digital artifact, and that was my initial thought. A smudge on the lens perhaps. However, the marks remain in place no matter which direction the camera is pointing. That means they are not a digital artifact.
The marks also look like they might be either a couple of smudges, such as what might happen crawling around in shorts on a roof, or a combination of a smudge and a shadow. This is what I assumed they were when I first looked at the footage.
After the call with my friend, I took a closer look. I no longer believe they are smudges or shadows. If you look at the subtle color changes around the spots, you can see that the shape of the leg is deformed. The “smudge” may be a hole in the leg. The “shadow”, which is larger, looks like another hole. An entry and an exit wound, respectively.
Here are some closer shots from the bodycam footage, followed by an illustration designed to enhance (exaggerate) what might be going on.
If Crooks was shot while in the prone position used to shoot Trump and other rally goers, then this wound indicates he was shot from behind. And, interestingly enough, there is a window at exactly the right angle behind him to make this shot, provided Crooks’ leg was bent for stability, a common practice for snipers.
Whatever happened, it looks to me as if Crooks’ kneecap was blown off. I’ve seen the head wound which was apparently fired by a sniper team behind Trump, making it a frontal shot, but this kneecap shot bothers me. Exit wounds are larger than entry wounds, making this a rear entry, unless he got up and turned around after being shot in the head.
Maybe it’s just a trick of the light, but it is interesting. The beauty of having a number of government officials who don’t answer questions is that it leaves fertile ground for speculation.
UPDATE:
A reader just sent me an image that provides more information. It seems to show the marks are dirt, not entry and exit wounds. However, If I’m reading this photo correctly, it shows the wrong knee. The wounded knee is hidden by one of the ridges in the roof.
Update 2 (thanks to GaveMartin): Apparently, a leg wound from behind is highly plausible, according to this article: https://headlineusa.com/report-local-cop-not-secret-service-stopped-the-trump-shooter/
Update 3: Bullet injuries to the ear alone are rare in the experience of a plastic surgeon who says he has only treated such wounds in combination with wounds to other parts of the head. This is because ears are so close to the head that it is very difficult to hit the ear at the precise angle needed to avoid all other parts of the head.
Update 4: Thanks to the comments section, I made a visual analysis of the photo sent by NC4Twitter. Now it does look like the right leg is visible. I’m not satisfied that the obvious dirt marks in that photo are the same as the marks in the other photo lifted from the bodycam video.
Two other problems exist: I was unable to reconcile what looked to be the direction of the upper portion of the left leg with the orientation of what appears to be the left shoe. To do it required just about breaking the left leg at the knee. Second, the bodycam footage shoes a thick white band around the bottom of the shoe (the side of the sole). It is not easy to see this in the photo posted by NC, and I’m not satisfied I was able to find its boundary.
Looking at these photos made it clear that Crooks’ body shifted position after he was killed. The video shows one of the officers lifting Crooks’ arm, so that isn’t surprising. In the bodycam footage, he is chest down. In the still image, he is twisted so that his legs are facing up (backs of legs on roof), his chest is lying with its left side on the roof, and his face is down.
Although the marks visible in the still photo look to be dirt (and that’s what I think they are), they are the medial side of the leg. The lateral side of the leg is where we see what looks like wounds, as pointed out by R27. Therefore, the image may show the same leg in question, but not the same side of that leg.
Update 6 (8/1/2024): After some back and forth, I am not convinced the marks are entry and exit wounds from a bullet. I am convinced they aren’t the dirt marks from NC’s photo because they are on the wrong side of the leg (medial instead of lateral) and the shapes don’t match. I am also convinced they aren’t an artifact attached to the camera sensor because the marks are mapped to the leg (they don’t move when the camera moves.) They could be dirt as I originally thought, but if so, they are much darker than the dirt in NC’s shot, and not just because the image is darker overall.
It bothers me that there is no visible blood spatter or drips in the leg area. This could be due to the body being moved or if they aren’t bullet wounds. I wish the image of the head wasn’t blurred out, to better evaluate the blood color on Crooks’ face. Compared to the blood streaks on the roof (in shadow) the marks are the right value (darkness) but the color cannot be determined easily from the image. I evaluated it in Photoshop, but it is so low saturation that it is difficult to say that the color is right or wrong for blood.
The discoloration on the leg is not a shadow, because the entire leg is in shadow but most of it is much lighter than the area in question. Therefore, the discoloration is real and local to the right knee region. It looks too dark to be dirt, but could be a different substance, such as grease. If it is the product of a bullet entry and exit, an explanation is needed for the lack of visible blood drips or spatter on the leg.
For now, I’m done speculating on this and will go back to regular programming.
Thank you for helping keep this story "alive" until we have the "Whats" "Whens" and "Hows" leading us to the ultimate "Who" that, of course, as of now, all point to the feds "management".
And speaking of the Who, Whats, Whens, Wheres, and Whys, tripping onto the scene is "useful" Jill Biden at her Italian Heritage dinner speech up the road "pulling resources". A trip that was scheduled After President Trump's Butler Rally was posted to S.S.
Jill shows up in a white suit (perhaps the one from the cover of Vogue) on a Saturday night in her home state in the middle of July. Who in their right mind would go to an Italian dinner in a white suit? It must have been Alfredo sauce all evening. Here she is looking how I would expect her to look, dressed in her upholstery favorites "at home."
https://penncapital-star.com/briefs/jill-biden-coming-to-pittsburgh-on-saturday-to-attend-italian-sons-and-daughters-of-america-dinner/
I don't know dirt about ballistics but I do know what to wear if salsa, red chile, tomato sauce are going to be around cameras and public speaking. I appreciate you all.
https://orderisda.org/culture/women/dr-jill-biden-delivers-heritage-address-at-dinner-hosted-by-basil-russo-and-isda-celebrating-italian-american-womens-contributions-to-our-country/
I think the blood came from the head wound & flowed down the roof & his leg was in the pool of this blood. (The head is very vascular & bleeds profusely - which is why there was so much blood from President Trump’s ear)