"... and the time shots were fired at the former president, according to several law enforcement officials and lawmakers briefed on the matter. Officials said the snipers spotted the suspect, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, on the roof of a building outside the security zone at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, at 5:52 p.m. ET. The shooting happened at 6:12 p.m. ET, 20 minutes later, the sources said.... The FBI director, his deputy director and the head of the Secret Service told lawmakers Crooks was identified as a person of interest a full 62 minutes before the shooting took place, according to the law enforcement officials and lawmakers briefed."
According to the sources, the timeline presented in the briefing was as follows
5:10 p.m. Crooks was first identified as a person of interest
5:30 p.m. Crooks was spotted with a rangefinder
5:52 p.m. Crooks was spotted on the roof by Secret Service
6:02 p.m. Trump takes the stage
6:12 p.m. Crooks fires first shots
Much more at the link.
Posts
85 comments:
Stunning.
Your agency's job is to identify and eliminate threats. You identify a threat and 20 minutes later, your mission is less than an inch away from catastrophic failure because...
Explain to me why your agency should continue to exist.
5:52 p.m. Crooks was spotted on the roof by Secret Service
6:02 p.m. Trump takes the stage
In those ten minutes no one thought to tell Donald Trump something on the order of “There’s a suspicious person on a roof who seems to have a rifle. Please don’t go out there until we’ve verified that he’s not a threat or until we have him in custody.”
Hard to believe.
Fire all the leadership in that SS chain of command all the way to the top.
Explain to me why your agency should continue to exist.
Lower the bar- why does the head say the buck stops with her but I’m not leaving?
The fact that ABC News is telling us this…it feels like the left taking a victory lap…
"Lower the bar- why does the head say the buck stops with her but I’m not leaving?"
Because she intends to keep cashing those paychecks? Those bucks have got to stop somewhere.
we knew and didn’t respond for twenty minutes
From the article:
"The FBI director, his deputy director and the head of the Secret Service told lawmakers Crooks was identified as a person of interest a full 62 minutes before the shooting took place, according to the law enforcement officials and lawmakers briefed.
...
Briefers told lawmakers that Crooks purchased an ammunition box at a Walmart on July 5, two days after the rally was announced. On July 13, he went to the rally site in the morning, was there for an hour and then left. He came back sometime in the early 5 p.m. hour and tried to enter the security perimeter at around 5:30 p.m."
How was Crooks identified as a person of interest at 5:10 pm when his first attempt to enter the security perimeter was around 5:30? Maybe it was this:
"New bystander video obtained exclusively by Pittsburgh ABC affiliate WTAE appears to show Crooks pacing just beyond the boundaries of the Trump rally at 5:06 p.m. Saturday -- about 1 hour and 5 minutes before shots were first fired. Law enforcement sources said they believe this video shows Crooks.
Crooks' presence in the area of the metal detectors in the minutes before the shooting caught the eye of someone in law enforcement who became suspicious and started to approach him, multiple sources told ABC News. At that point, the would-be assassin backed up and faded into the crowd, according to sources. It was not clear how long before the shooting this happened.
As officers began searching for the suspicious person, Crooks made his way to the area of the American Glass Research (AGR) building outside the security perimeter established for the event, the sources said. At the time, the building was being used as a staging area for local police, who were inside the structure, the Secret Service director, Cheatle, told ABC News in an exclusive interview this week."
Isn't that interesting: They are leaving out the local police climbing up to the roof, seeing the shooter and then climbing back down from the roof after doing NOTHING and then some minutes (unknown how many) elapsed while the Secret Service had the shooter IN THEIR SCOPE but also did NOTHING.
Why would they leave this detail out of their timeline? The "local cop" could have discharged his weapon as a warning. He could have shot at the shooter. He could have not been a coward. Lots of things he could have done. But he chose to do NOTHING and allow the assassin to murder a former Fire Chief, injure three other people including the former President of the United States and ONLY THEN did Jack Ruby pull out a gun and shoot Lee Harvey Oswald, the patsy.
Forgive me if I rewind history for you about how you assassinate someone in the United States with the full cooperation of the United States Secret Service.
Unbelievable (meant literally) display of incompetence at so many levels. Your government at work.
yikes
People saw him climbing the roof with a rifle filmed him and pointed him out. Was that 20 minutes before the shooting? hard to believe. People really have some explaining to do!
We'll need further infomation. And the OFFICIAL announcement
They're trying to determine Crooks' motive? How about determining the Secret Service's motives for the actions they did and did not take?
What else are they leaving out? Oh, they're leaving out the many attendees of the event pointing out very, very early on that there was a guy bear-crawling on the roof with a high-powered weapon. "Nothing to concern yourself with, citizen. We have this well in hand."
The American people need to STOP RELYING ON YOUR GOVERNMENT TO FIX THINGS. They are not going to, and in many cases they are the actual people creating the problem. Don't TELL a cop there's a guy on the roof. That will achieve NOTHING.
GO GET THE GUY WITH THE GUN ON THE ROOF.
"5:52 p.m. Crooks was spotted on the roof by Secret Service" Did the SS report this to anybody and if so, who? Why wasn't Trump pulled off the stage or not let onto the stage upon receipt of this knowledge? Was the person responsible for relaying the knowledge near the stage? If not, it was an inside job. Or at least allowed to proceed.
Trump must not appear in public unless he has his own private security.
From the article:
From the time Crooks fired his first shot to the gunman being killed was just 26 seconds, according to law enforcement officials. Eleven seconds after the first shot, Secret Service counter snipers acquired their target -- and 15 seconds after that, Crooks was shot dead.
I've been asking this question from day one. Known threat. Known location. 26 seconds??! WTF? Can someone with knowledge tell me that is acceptable?
What else are they leaving out?
After the shots have been fired and Trump has been hit, what did the 4'-6-inch obese Secret Service girls do? They stood Donald Trump up and held him on the stage for 74 seconds with his head in full view while they fumbled to get their guns back in their newly-acquired holsters. And only after he got his shoe back on did they slowly - very very slowly - begin to move him down off the stage, again, with his head and iconic fist raised into the air. In full view of any shooters.
Now that makes a good photo, I'll grant you that. But that's not what they did with Ronald Reagan. They jumped Reagan and you never saw his head again. Go watch the video. Count how many seconds from the first shot that they HELD Donald Trump up on that stage, surrounded, with his head in full view.
I'm not saying they were trying to get him killed. I'm saying that IF THEY WERE, this is exactly what they would do. You are free to form your own conclusions.
I've formed mine. Donald Trump is in grave, grave danger. They are not done trying to murder him.
I'm surprised they're admitting this. There must be undeniable evidence already out there.
Anyone still believing this was mere incompetence?
What else are they leaving out:
After pulling Donald Trump off the stage an into a vehicle, the Secret Service very, very slowly not more than 5 miles per hour, "whisked" Donald Trump to ....
.... wait for it .....
.... some unknown hospital, where he was treated by .... wait for it ... unknown doctors and nurses ....
None of whom have been identified. None of whom have been interviewed by the press. Nobody has video of Donald Trump's Secret Service entourage pulling up to any hospital ... desperately trying to trundle him into the emergency room. (When JFK was murdered, they had all this on videotape, before cell phones.) There have been zero "human interest" stories from the nurses who joked with Trump while they were sewing up his ears.
None of that has occurred. There is a dog not barking here.
Shoulda read the comments first, again... Sigh...smh...
Trump must not appear in public unless he has his own private security.
===============
he also needs to assign his putative DHS nominee to oversee/grade this oversight attempt by current Congress GOPe
Motive? Lets see... He wanted to see if he could hit Trump's ear?
According to disciplined scoring, the USSC killed Trump, but he moved his head.
"Stunning."
FPBP. 20 minutes....
Outrageous
Outrageous
Outrageous
I've been asking this question from day one. Known threat. Known location. 26 seconds??! WTF? Can someone with knowledge tell me that is acceptable?
=============
the shooter was suppressed by sniper team not seen by anybody - nearly 500 yds away Erik Prince on X. the team we saw behind Trump is squirrel/shiny object
Something stinks.
There is video of Trump walking into the hospital. The people already there heard he was shot and were very upset by that news. They were extremely relieved to see him walking.
We need Ric Grenell to uncover the truth of what happened and let us know that truth. I don’t trust the FBI or anyone in govt rn. It’s outrageous and thoroughly unacceptable that Trump was allowed on that stage. Obviously!!
Retail Lawyer said: "Trump must not appear in public unless he has his own private security."
That's not what you do. If you are Donald Trump, what you do is hire Private Security and pay them very, very well. After you hire them, you have a group meeting with the Secret Service where you announce your team and their task .... which is to WATCH the Secret Service. If the Secret Service isn't doing their job, your Private Security is authorized to act regardless of the Secret Service. You let the Secret Service know that they are under constant surveillance. For their protection, of course.
Don't WAIT for your government to protect you. They aren't going to. And in some cases, they may be trying to murder you.
They have a Hell of a lot more than a timeline.
Every word spoken on their frequencies was recorded. Of course it was.
That evidence could condemn several people.
If they try to say they don't have the audio then we're moving towards number 4.
None of this makes sense, even in the dystopian nightmare that America has become.
It was a planned hit that went wrong, and they aren't done trying. Too many wealthy powerful people and organizations have too much to lose when DJT is President.
The only thing we know for certain is that democrats, and many republicans, have purposely created one of the most incompetent, corrupt and evil governments in our history.
Big Mike, I agree with you. I'm skeptical at this moment that nobody told Trump. If they didn't tell Trump, I'm fully in the criminally negligent camp for the agent in charge of Trump's protection detail. They put everyone at that event at risk with their poor decision-making skills. However, that goes for Trump too at some level (I can get to Trump not believing them). If he was told and still went out there, then shame on Trump. But I'd think if they told Trump and he still went out there, someone would have leaked that long ago. So, what the hell?
If someone said they saw a potential gunman near a school, we all know that school would have gone in lockdown and nothing would have moved until they found the person and verified the situation. I can't believe the USSS wouldn't have something similar as a procedure when law enforcement is the source of the report of a potential gunman.
1. If you have to compare the current head of the Secret Service to the all-white male Service who failed to protect President Reagan from being shot and injure James Brady so badly that there were more restrictions on guns, you're pretty desperate
2. The SServ does need to be held accountable, but we are all seeing it getting twisted into sexism. And I am not lying. There are so many people (mostly men) who are saying on X that women should just stay in their homes and raise kids. That *does* strike a note with women of all stripes. Just read an article from Time magazine; Trump fans who have no common sense are trumpeting all of their misogyny that's on social media. And the liberal media is eating it up:
https://time.com/6998539/trump-shooting-republicans-blame-dei-secret-service-women/
Call out Cheatle for the problems but you better make sure it is about professionalism or y'all are going to be disappointed in November when Trump wins the presidency but the House and Senate are controlled by the Democrats because women can't trust conservatives to respect them even when reproductive rights are not even involved.
"The "local cop" could have discharged his weapon as a warning. He could have shot at the shooter. He could have not been a coward. Lots of things he could have done. But he chose to do NOTHING and allow the assassin to murder a former Fire Chief, injure three other people including the former President of the United States"
According to an interview with the township commissioner, there was no ladder in the area where one officer lifted another up to the roof. The one being lifted used both hands to pull himself up to get a look, the shooter saw him and pointed his gun at him and the officer fell back, with no opportunity to wield his gun. The commissioner says if the officer was in a position to engage the shooter, he would have done so and the idea that he avoided that is disgusting.
FWIW, YMMV...
Interview here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/butler-pa-township-commissioner-our-local-police-duties-were-strictly-about-traffic/vi-BB1qam3z#details
I had read the county commissioner stated that local cops were only there for traffic control.
who can explain level of protection for former President v Candidate for President?
So... Cheatle is Sam Brinton in drag? WTF.
"the shooter was suppressed by sniper team not seen by anybody - nearly 500 yds away Erik Prince on X. the team we saw behind Trump is squirrel/shiny object"
I have never heard it officially that the two snipers behind Trump were the first to shoot the assassin. Was he killed by another team? I am sure the SS knows the answer.
is it not telling that your Congress hears from "Federal Law Enforcement honchos"
and not people on the ground like local and city township officials!
and various citizens attendees rally people.
retail lawyer said...
Trump must not appear in public unless he has his own private security.
The people who control the Regime have made it clear they will make Trump's head explode in broad daylight at a political rally with thousands of phones recording him without even a pretense of making it appear like they didn't mean to do it.
There is only one thing that keeps Trump alive at this point. No amount of security will protect Trump.
The people behind the regime have to be put on notice that they will not escape. They do not care about Biden or Harris or Mayorkas or any of the flunkies that are exposed.
The promised investigation and reprisals will have to be so thorough and broad that they do not think they can slip away in the confusion.
I have never heard it officially that the two snipers behind Trump were the first to shoot the assassin.
============
video shows them firing in that direction - who were they aiming at? successfully? for show?
As I recall, the wound on the head of Cook was on the right and back, so the shot may have come from someone outside the security perimeter? Noo Noo Noooo Nooo Noo Noo Nooooo Noo.
It is becoming hard to believe that the Secret Service can be THAT incompetent.
Dixcus said...
Retail Lawyer said: "Trump must not appear in public unless he has his own private security."
That's not what you do. If you are Donald Trump, what you do is hire Private Security and pay them very, very well.
Trump wouldn't have to pay them well.
I would do it for my mortgage and food for the kids. There are many 20 year retireds/100%ers who are real ass kickers that would do it for free.
Trump really is a way nicer person than he needs to be.
I've seen a few photos today of Crooks in and around the building. I trust eyewitnesses like I do a weatherman. I'm not saying they are wrong, but I want to see other evidence. I've seen that evidence. There were so many opportunities to stop Crooks and none of them were taken until he opened fire. This isn't Oswald firing from enclosed building through an open window hidden behind books so that no one could easily spot him. This was a 20-year-old loner/bullied kid with no military training that knew how to build remotely detonated explosives and accurately measure range and fire a rifle out to 200 yards acting in the open with no known presence on the internet.
Everything about it is beyond what I could have believed a week ago.
I voted for #2. But now with this updated evidence, I'm switching my vote to #5 (sic).
Trump had his own security guy in 2016. I would have kept him but maybe the SS was able to oust him. Security clearance or something.
If the sniper behind Trump killed Cook, his wound would have been in the left forehead. Cook was lying on the roof facing Trump.
If the sniper behind Trump shot Cook, the wound would have been in the left forehead, Cook was lying below the crest of the roof facing Trump.
to be fair, there IS this direct quote from the Secret Service director, Cheatle
"it's True.. we failed miserably. We were only an inch from success, but we DID fail.. THIS TIME
But; i guaranty you, we will NOT fail again.. That Son of a Bitch Trump will HAVE TO place his head out of doors again.. AND WHEN HE DOES.. WE WILL NOT FAIL AGAIN!! "
as in Vorkosigan Saga Trump should raise army of 1000's cooks with knives!
Vorloupulous's Law
with his various feuds. Lord Vorloupulous therefore decided to hire on 2000 retired military men to be cooks for him, and rather than give them the standard weaponry, he provided them with butcher's knives.
Mason G, so the local cops had to alley-oop to get to the roof? While the kid thought to bring a ladder?
WTF. I give up.
Now Biden has covid. Uh-huh. I'm calling it now: tomorrow we're going to be told that he died overnight, his body has already been cremated, twice, and that Harris has been arrested for felony mopery and dopery. Jill is believed to be on a plane to Venezuela. Or Argentina, no one is really sure. Also the White House sterling silver has gone missing.
When did although turn into an assassination truther? “Don’t attribute to malice that which can be attributed to incompetence” is a maxim for a reason
"Mason G, so the local cops had to alley-oop to get to the roof? While the kid thought to bring a ladder?
WTF. I give up."
The local cops weren't tasked with security. Sounds like they did what they could on short notice. I suppose they could have sent someone to Home Depot to buy one like the kid thought to do, maybe?
Or Argentina
=================
plane will not be allowed to land / enter air space
Dixcus said
“None of whom have been identified. None of whom have been interviewed by the press. Nobody has video of Donald Trump's Secret Service entourage pulling up to any hospital ... desperately trying to trundle him into the emergency room“
I posted all of this on the other thread when you first mentioned it. I will repost here.
This is a repost for Dixcus:
Dixcus said:
“That might just be a lack of imagination in the press, but I'm still waiting to see evidence that Donald Trump was rushed to a hospital. I've seen none yet. That dog is strangely quiet.”
Here’s an article about the hospital:
“Butler Memorial Hospital has confirmed that former president Donald Trump was treated there for injuries sustained during the assassination attempt at a rally on Saturday.
After hospital officials received news of the shooting, the facility went on a three-hour lockdown during which nobody could leave or enter the building, said Karen Allen, president for Butler Memorial and Clarion hospitals.”
https://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2024/07/15/butler-memorial-hospital-trump/stories/202407160009
Here’s video: (via CFP)
https://x.com/citizenfreepres/status/1813594899947905353?s=46
After the attempt on Pres Reagan, Secret Service drove him back to the White House. Midway, they realized he was shot and drove him to GWU Hospital. After that the protocol was changed so that victims of attempted assassinations are immediately taken to a hospital.
7/17/24, 12:23 PM
That the SS didn't take a man with a gun out - PRIOR - TO Shots being fired.
yeah - that's incompetence or on purpose. I vote on purpose.
Wait!
The local cops could have used the kid's ladder! Already set up and everything! And they had, what, twenty minutes to find it?
No problem!
See what creative problem-solving can do?
Anyway, if the locals weren't covering the AGR roof, and USSS also wasn't, then who was? It's like that "Lost Jungle Safari" Monty Python skit. Only inside-out, and with real dead bodies!
I picked the wrong decade to stop drinking, that's for sure.
"The local cops weren't tasked with security. Sounds like they did what they could on short notice. I suppose they could have sent someone to Home Depot to buy one like the kid thought to do, maybe?"
To be fair, we had a kid who went all around the place for more than hours with; range finder, gun, ladder, and bombs. He struck the SS protectee with an off the shelf 5.56mm rifle.
Classic "Were you stupid or were you part of the plot?" meme. I did some engineering expert witness testimony in my day. Under cross these SS fish are going to be cast on the pier.
The article about the hospital is pretty interesting. Since the hospital was placed on lockdown it meant that the hospital couldn’t admit anyone who had an emergency. So they had to set up a triage team in the parking lot to deal with emergencies.
Bizarre wording from the ABC article: "Trump said he suffered a bullet wound to his right ear."
Trump said?
Who made the decision to allow President Trump to go on that stage within those 20 minutes???
This is the main question that must be answered.
Does anyone know for sure how the shooter got on the roof? Did he bring his own ladder? How does that happen?
I’ve been to 4-5 Trump rallies and carrying a ladder and rifle around outside the rally is unbelievable.
Blogger Michael Fitzgerald said...
Anyone still believing this was mere incompetence?
You would be amazed at how much damage can be done by mere "incompetence"
@Dave Begley
Dave, I have seen photos posted of a large AC unit at ground level that he scrambled up to get to the roof. I don't think he lumped a ladder into the event, despite reports that he purchased one earlier in the day.
The head of the Secret Service needs to resign or be fired. Why was Trump allowed to take the stage with a potential shooter on a rooftop??? Also, 26 seconds is a long time when bullets are flying.
"From the time Crooks fired his first shot to the gunman being killed was just 26 seconds, according to law enforcement officials. Eleven seconds after the first shot, Secret Service counter snipers acquired their target -- and 15 seconds after that, Crooks was shot dead."
are these congress critters the same sir brave robins who ran away on January 6th?
Original Mike said...
Bizarre wording from the ABC article: "Trump said he suffered a bullet wound to his right ear."
Trump said?
So there is an interesting thing happening where many, many democrats just assert that Trump staged the assassination attempt.
The local cops weren't tasked with security. Sounds like they did what they could on short notice.
Did they have no radio contact with the USSS? If not, another catastrophic failure in coordinating security. If they did, then they did not do all they could do if they didn't signal "Mayday, get Trump off the stage!" and/or signal the snipers to take out the threat.
“5:52 p.m. Crooks was spotted on the roof by Secret Service”
Questions:
When was he spotted with a gun? Climbing on roofs of buildings near outdoor ventures to get a better look without going into the venue has a long tradition. And even if a gun can be plainly seen, while unsettling as hell, it might be perfectly legal outside the security perimeter in a state with open carry.
What did Donald Trump know and when did he know it? The timeline outs Crooks on the roof and spotted by the Secret Service before Trump went on stage.
What drew police suspicion to Crooks in the first place?
Leland said...
If someone said they saw a potential gunman near a school, we all know that school would have gone in lockdown and nothing would have moved until they found the person and verified the situation. I can't believe the USSS wouldn't have something similar as a procedure when law enforcement is the source of the report of a potential gunman.
7/17/24, 8:25 PM
That's different. Progressives use school shooting to attack Republicans about guns, yet are fine someone was spotted an hour before Trump hit the stage, because their dreams almost came true.
and the only one who tried to get up to the roof to physically stop him was the local cop, who was a lowly traffic cop. It wasn't his responsibility but he had his friend lift him up to check on the roof. And so all those experts are trying to blame him for not pulling out his gun while holding onto the edge of the roof with both hands.
One might understand that snipers might not want to shoot first and ask questions later, but who the heck let Trump on the stage when there was an active threat on site?
Incredible.
There's a video out of the rally, with Crooks behind the audience, casing the buildings...and NOBODY thought he was suspicious at a Presidential Candidate rally??? Really?? Why didn't anybody stop him then, and ask him what he was doing and why he wasn't where the rest of the crowd was?? He was looking up at the buildings, not paying attention to what was going on on the stage.
https://www.wtae.com/article/trump-rally-gunman-thomas-crooks-video-prior/61623731
I see lots of misinformation (for real) about the interface between the local LEOs and the Secret Service.
Listen here for an interview by John Hinderaker of David Zimmer who served 33 years in local law enforcement with the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and has considerable experience working with the Secret Service for Presidential visits as well as leading groups of officers to support several Presidential Inaugurations.
https://www.americanexperiment.org/multimedia/podcast/episode-37-trump-assassination-attempt
Further update from Powerline (with link to another article by Zimmer)
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/07/the-latest-on-the-attempted-assassination.php
Bottom line ... Local law enforcement were absolutely doing more than traffic control, though that is not intended to absolve the Secret Service of responsibility for their own failures.
David goes into some detail in how security is coordinated and what information to be looking for.
"Secret Service counter snipers acquired their target -- and 15 seconds after that, Crooks was shot dead."
Shots fired. So the SS KNEW there was an active threat. Target acquired and it then took 15 seconds to kill this guy?
BS. BS on steroids.
Our oldest has been part of a State Trooper SWAT team. I once asked him if he ever held the role of sniper. He said that they had a guy that could shoot better him. And our son is a hell of a shot. As I noted elsewhere our son says of their team sniper, "He sees it. He hits it." And it sure as hell does not take 15 seconds for a top level sniper to take down a target at these ranges AFTER the target is acquired.
The only excuse is someone still needed a "Go" command before they could shoot. If the ROE's are that bad it is criminal.
JAORE said...
Our oldest has been part of a State Trooper SWAT team. I once asked him if he ever held the role of sniper. He said that they had a guy that could shoot better him. And our son is a hell of a shot. As I noted elsewhere our son says of their team sniper, "He sees it. He hits it." And it sure as hell does not take 15 seconds for a top level sniper to take down a target at these ranges AFTER the target is acquired.
Certainly not at 130 meters.
The main delay in taking a precision shot is doing the math and polling the wind. You don't really need math until past 600 meters. Wind only really starts to matter past 1000 meters.
The problem with all of this is the Counter Sniper Team had the shooter explicitly scoped in and was watching him for minutes. They saw him point a gun at an LEO during that time and heard the LEO call that out on the radio.
What would have happened if the local police guy that was scared off the roof hit the ground and then right away shot his gun straight up in the air? Would it have thwarted the shooter, thrown off his timing? Or is that a dumb thought based on me seeing too many TV shows? Or would it have resulted in the S Service raining down a hail of gunfire . . . on the local police officer? I'm asking because I understand him not wanting to get shot, but doing nothing seems like a terrible choice.
Bud Norton said...
What would have happened if the local police guy that was scared off the roof hit the ground and then right away shot his gun straight up in the air?
Well, someone could have been killed by that bullet.
A bullet going up, comes down with essentially the same force as it went up. He could easily have shot someone in the crowd, or even Trump.
Never, ever, ever shoot a gun into the air.
Greg,
Your closing advice is spot on.
But some of your reasoning is completely off:
"A bullet going up, comes down with essentially the same force as it went up"
Sorry, but depending on the exact round, barrel length, etc, a 5.56 bullet leaves the muzzle at about Mach 2.8. There is absolutely no way such a tiny projectile will reach that velocity in free fall through the lower atmosphere.
These guys (yeah, it's wiki, I know) cite a US Army study that showed the terminal velocity of a .30-06 bullet to be about 300 ft per second -- i.e. about 10% of the muzzle velocity of an AR bullet. And I would expect that the actual terminal velocity of the 5.56 bullet will be even slower given its lesser sectional density.
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