“Next of Kin” Autopsy Stifles Truth on Would-be Assassin of President Trump
August 21, 2024
photo & caption credit see footnote below
Congressman Clay Higgins, investigator for the House Bi-Partisan Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Former President Donald Trump, is not a happy camper. In the Congressman’s preliminary report, the lawmaker raises questions about troubling actions on the part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), describing those actions as “an obstruction of justice to any following investigative effort.”
What exactly has the FBI done that doesn’t sit well with the Congressman? First, Higgins complains that “the coroner’s report and autopsy report are both “late.” And the second issue the Congressman has with the FBI is that the federal agency allowed the alleged shooter’s body to be cremated prior to Congressional inspection. So, let’s deal with each complaint independently.
Contrary to Congressman Higgins statement, the coroner’s report and autopsy are not “late.” AbleChild spoke with the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office on August 4th and was advised that the autopsy had been conducted and returned to the Butler County Coroner, which will be explained later in the article. Neither the Coroner’s death certificate nor the autopsy is “late.”
Whoever provided this information to the Congressman was either out of the loop or lying. The Butler County coroner was in possession of the autopsy and his own death report when Congressman Higgins met with him. To state otherwise is bizarre.
It might behoove the Congressman to inquire, again, with the Butler County Coroner about not only the reports the coroner had in his possession when meeting with the Congressman, but also why the coroner was directed at midnight on the night of the shooting to return the next morning to carry out the identification process. The Congressman may want to know who made that request, who was guarding the crime scene all night and where is the police log of all who may have been on the roof of the AGR building during the evening.
Did the Congressman request to view photographs the coroner had to have taken of the body while making identification? That would, at least, provide the lawmaker with a view of the body that was untouched by the Medical Examiner. And it might be helpful to know what law enforcement agent was with the coroner when he was at the scene, making identification of the body. This is standard at all crime scenes and the law enforcement agent’s notes should reflect what was submitted by the coroner.
Now, on to the “missing body.” Yes, the alleged shooter’s body was allowed to be released to the family for cremation on July 23rd, just ten days after the shooting. This is not by accident. The FBI signed off on the release by the Butler County coroner and unless the family agrees to releasing the autopsy, the public will never know if the alleged shooter is actually Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Here’s how it works. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner (ME) released the autopsy to the Butler County Coroner fairly quickly before August 5th. But it is anyone’s guess whether the alleged shooter’s body was returned to the coroner or whether the coroner just provided permission for the body to be released by the ME. Either way, the FBI had to allow this to happen, and the coroner merely acquiesced to the request.
Apparently, because the Butler County Coroner paid for the autopsy (as explained by the ME’s office) the autopsy is under Butler County’s jurisdiction and Butler County does not release autopsy information without permission from next of kin. This, of course, means that unless the Crooks family allows the autopsy to be released to the public, no one will ever know what the autopsy reveals. The public will just have to take the word of the FBI. Not the best of scenarios.
Jonathan Emord, Principal Emord & Associates, General Counsel and Vice President-Legal, Regulatory Strategies International, has long studied matters of constitutional rights and has great insight into the problems with allowing next of kin to have ultimate control over autopsies.
“The public,” explains Emord, “among them the families of victims and the media, have a compelling interest in discerning the causative factors that may have led to assassinations and mass shootings.” According to Emord, “there is, obviously, no privacy interest in the shooter who is deceased. Indeed, a reasonable argument could be made against any such interest in even a person who survived a shooting if the information could help reveal the motivations behind the act of violence.”
“And” says Emord, “it is critical for the public to understand the motivations that cause repeat offenses of this kind. That knowledge can lead to changes in public policy that may help reduce the risk of violence. If, for example, SSRI drugs are a common causative factor in school shootings, it should warrant restrictions, analogous to those in the United Kingdom, that disallow prescription of these drugs to juveniles. Without that information, it is more difficult, and sometimes impossible, to uncover pattern evidence or scientific proof of relationships between cause and effect in these cases.”
Can anything be done to overrule the next of kin in cases of assassination attempts? Emord believes that legislation could make a difference. “I would favor legislation of this kind in furtherance of the First Amendment,” says Emord. “It would ensure” Emord explained, “that government does not conceal and suppress autopsy related findings from the bodies of deceased shooters who are involved in assassination or mass killings. I believe there is no sound justification for disallowing public access to this information which may help guide us in understanding and acting preemptively to reduce the risk of future assassinations and mass shootings.”
Ironically, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is one of 21 states that make release of autopsies mandatory. According to the autopsy laws as of 2024, “It shall be the duty of the coroner or the deputy coroner of any county in this Commonwealth, in all cases where death is sudden or violent or is of a suspicious nature and character to make or cause to be made such an autopsy as the facts of the case may demand.”
The death of the alleged shooter certainly sounded “sudden or violent and of suspicious nature.” So why is the Butler County coroner withholding it from the public?
Seems like Congressman Higgins might want to have a chat with William F. Young III, Butler County Coroner. Mr. Young definitely has information that the public needs and should not have to wait for costly lawsuits or congressional legislation to get it.
Photo Credit
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray testifies before a House committee about the July 13 shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, on Capitol Hill. Wray said that the FBI will “leave no stone unturned” in its investigation of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) CAPTION QUOTE from Washington Times Article, August 26 “FBI director in hot water after suggesting Trump wasn’t hit by a bullet”
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