I was curious, so did a search for analysis of the attempted assassination in Russian, and it looks like there is nothing new, beside all kind of strange things that were noted right after the event. So there's that.
But I was also able to see Russian media talking about the
CNN report about "three different weapons" that was posted on the 15th of July, and was also mentioned several times on this thread. But since I missed it the first time, I did some checking of my own, so apologies for mentioning the topic once again. I do have some questions that hopefully could be answered. Or please direct me to the relevant posts
Anyways, here's the quote again:
Forensic analysis suggests that as many as three weapons were fired at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday.
The FBI said Sunday that the shooter acted alone.
The first three shots were consistent with alleged weapon A, the next five were consistent with alleged weapon B, and the final “acoustic impulse” was emitted by a possible weapon C, per audio analysis by Catalin Grigoras, director of the National Center for Media Forensics at the University of Colorado in Denver, and Cole Whitecotton, Senior Professional Research Associate at the same institution.
My first reaction was a surprise, because this news was reported by CNN. And as we know, CNN has an extremely poor record when it comes to reporting anything that goes against the mainstream agenda, and FBI at that point already denied that there were more shooters. So how come in this case CNN was the first and the main source to share something like this? On the other hand, maybe it's not a big deal if one doesn't equate "three weapons fired
at Trump rally" with "three weapons fired
at Trump".
That's essentially the line of defense that was taken by a
"fact-checking" site called "Lead Stories". In the article they are debunking the claim that was shared on X that "Trump was shot with 3 different weapons".
They claim that they contacted the researchers by e-mail:
The audio researchers cited in the CNN article,
Grigoras (archived
here) and
Whitecotton (archived
here), told Lead Stories in an email received on July 15, 2024, that they "never claimed that the victim was shot with three different weapons" and that
their work "just reported on how many acoustic impulses were present in the audio we analyzed." They added:
There are nine acoustic impulses, allegedly gunshots, that are grouped as follows:
1) Impulses 1-3 consistent with a source A (allegedly weapon A)
2) Impulses 4-8 consistent with a source B (allegedly weapon B)
3) Impulse 9 consistent probably with a source C (potential weapon C)
In the rest of the article they cite some further known facts, including this one:
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle stated in a
news release published on July 15, 2024 (archived
here) that the agency's counter-sniper team neutralized the shooter during the incident,
which could explain why multiple weapons were reportedly heard in the audio recording.
Funny how the "fact checkers" allow themselves "coulds" when it fits them.
No hard data here, just an assumption on their part that "it could explain" why multiple weapons were supposedly heard, without having access to the acoustic findings and what kind of video the experts analyzed.
And also this one:
On July 13, 2024, the FBI and Pennsylvania State Police held a
news conference (archived
here) on the shooting, during which federal and state officials confirmed that multiple shots were fired during the rally. At the 26:05 minute mark,
Kevin Rojeck (archived
here),
FBI special agent charge of the FBI's Pittsburgh Field Office, responded to a reporter's comment about several shots being fired, noting that it was "surprising."
But if this communication with the researchers is legit, they didn't share any data of the analysis beside further clarification on the "acoustic impulses". One would expect that they at least would mention on what video exactly they based their findings, or were these several videos? Hopefully at some point they will be questioned in public regarding their findings, and this is when they will share more hardcore data.
I also had no idea what "acoustic impulse" is, so did a Google search. Based on the information
here, acoustic impulse response is:
The impulse response is in essence a recording of what it would sound like in the room if you played an extremely loud, extremely short click - something like the crack of a pistol shot. The reason for measuring the impulse response (by more subtle means than firing a gun in the room) is that it completely characterises the behaviour of the system consisting of the speaker(s) that were measured and the room they are in, at the point where the measurement microphone is placed.
There is a very detailed explanation about it in the link, and I don't fully understand it, but the article also says this:
Reflections from the room's boundaries add to the initial response at times that correspond to how much further they had to travel to reach the microphone - for example, if the microphone were 10 feet from the speaker and a sound reflection from a wall had to travel 15 feet to reach the microphone, that reflection would contribute a spike (smeared out depending on the nature of the reflection) about 5 ms after the initial peak, because sound takes about 5 ms to travel that extra 5 feet.
Ok, so considering the above, and if I understand it correctly, the same noise would sound differently from a different location. Meaning, that it could be problematic to ascertain how many different weapons were fired if listening to different recordings, because the videos or recording were taken from different locations and distances to the shots fired, right? Unless similar pattern of acoustic differences could be heard in different videos?
I mean, if in one video you stand in location x and record the sound of different bullets firing, they would sound differently if you were standing in location y. But the difference in the pattern of how different they sound would be the same, no? And if it is so, it is even more interesting to know on what kind of videos and recording the forensic experts based their findings. But maybe I am missing something?
If they compared several recordings and were able to hear a similar pattern, then this looks like a pretty good evidence. Then it would probably be a matter of establishing an exact timeline (if it would ever be possible) and know exactly when the snipers fired. And any shots that weren't fired by the police or secret service would be suspect.
Again, apologies if all of this was already discussed. I am a tad late to the "event".
Added: I just saw the
following article that says:
The gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania fired eight bullets in under six seconds before he was shot and killed by a U.S. Secret Service sniper, according to an analysis of footage from the event by two audio experts, video analysis by CBS News and sworn statements from Pennsylvania State Police.
In testimony on Tuesday at a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing about the assassination attempt, Pennsylvania State Police Col. Christopher L. Paris told lawmakers that eight casings were recovered from the gunman's location.
The only word I have to say is "fascinating"!
There is really a need for a detailed analysis by the researches that identified acoustic impulses from 3 sources.