At that point, wouldn't simply the sounds of gunshots have at least had the chance of alerting somebody near the podium? So if that cop who peeked over the edge had at least put a few shot sort of towards Crooks, even if blindly with his head below the edge of the roof, or after he fell he and the other one had, I don't know, shot in the air - I know that is generally a bad idea because that bullet is going to come down somewhere, and with bad luck may end up hurting somebody, but with that situation one would think taking that chance would have been justifiable - maybe put several shots in the air in hopes that somebody might hear them and they might alert the other cops and USSS to the threat, and that they might rattle Crooks enough to make at the very least harder for him to aim? I mean if they didn't have any other way to get word about the threat fast to where it should have gone, to the USSS around Trump? Do at least SOMETHING that might attract attention to the fact that there is a threat there? From a handgun it is not maybe that loud a sound from a distance, but it is sort of distinguishable by even people who have never used a gun, and if there were several in a rapid succession at least a little bit before Crooks started to shoot...

At that point, wouldn't simply the sounds of gunshots have at least had the chance of alerting somebody near the podium? So if that cop who peeked over the edge had at least put a few shot sort of towards Crooks, even if blindly with his head below the edge of the roof, or after he fell he and the other one had, I don't know, shot in the air - I know that is generally a bad idea because that bullet is going to come down somewhere, and with bad luck may end up hurting somebody, but with that situation one would think taking that chance would have been justifiable - maybe put several shots in the air in hopes that somebody might hear them and they might alert the other cops and USSS to the threat, and that they might rattle Crooks enough to make at the very least harder for him to aim?