Unanswered Questions. The shooting of Matt Mika at the Republican Congressional baseball practice.

I just want to interject with how absolutely annoying the guy with the camera is. He is clearly not trying to get any of the action....or very little of it.

And when he asks..."Is anybody talking to the guy in the field?" I just want to slap him. He's right there. Has he seen anyone talking to him? No.

The camera guy just seems to be very careful about NOT getting too much on video of the area where everything is happening. And it's not like any bullets are flying at him to explain it.

Revised layout





So now lets talk about Harder.
Use the scale on this photo to show about 100 feet. We have to assume that Harder is giving a very rough estimate of the distance.
If Harder is correct Mika could have been on the first base side near the gate or the batting cages and been hit while on the field then moving that "100 feet" toward the SUV and the parking lot he goes down in that grassy area. He would still be in the line of fire on the ground. I am starting to think the shooter may have actually went behind that blue shed and fired toward the tan shed which would be consistent with the congressmen who said that they took fire near that spot. Its quite possibly that Mika was hit again as he was on the ground near that spot while the shooter was trying to engage the police.

a reply to: MotherMayEye

Yes he seems to be focused on Scalise and forgetting that there is still action going on to his left.

a reply to: Dragoon01

Please don't say "engage the police."

a reply to: Dragoon01

The people in the dugout were claiming they were getting shot at with bullets flying over their heads and the safest place being low in the front towards the home base end.

a reply to: MotherMayEye

Yes that would be consistent with the shooter moving from the third base side to behind home plate and further over.
When I first heard the story I could not figure out why they went into the dugouts. I am accustomed to "dug outs" in our local park system which are not actually dug out. They are simple shelters for the teams to be in while the game goes on. Then I see that these are actually real dug outs meaning that they are dug into the ground two or three feet below the field level. So they are a very good place to seek cover. They are made of blocks and concrete blocks can shatter when hit by shots. The bullets themselves can shatter and "Spall" that is the fragments explode and can injure you even if the bullet does not hit you. So getting closer to the home plate side of the dugout would provide them very good protection.
I can see the shooter standing at the third base side and beginning to fire. As the players scatter and run away from him he begins to move to his right toward home plate. This would expose more of the players to him as they took cover behind the SUVs and the shed. He continues to fire and probably works his way down to near the blue shed. At that point he is taking return fire from the police. Its possible that the local PD have shown up and are in the parking lot on the first base side so he tries to back track toward the third base dug outs as he exchanges fire with them.

I say engage because its a shooters term. I shoot, we engage targets. Its a habit, but I understand your discomfort with it.

Watch the video again.
I think the guy in the dark pants and grey shirt is the shooter.
The reason he is casually walking out from behind that blue shed and throwing his hand up is because he is shooting. He makes this gesture and then he drops his hand and begins to fidget with something. Thats a classic reload movement. he is shooting with his right hand and then changing the magazine with both hands and looking down at them. He continues to move to his left and out of our view. If you watch the area by the SUV very closely you can see him move back to the left again for a quick second. Its at that point that Conaway stands up like its over. I think the shooter was shot and on the ground. Then another person comes out of the dugout and he and Conaway run to the left. As they are moving we see officers moving in with their weapons pointed to the ground (like at a body on the ground) from the left by the shed.


ETA:
At about 1:17 we see that guy in the ddark cloths run from right to left behind that blue shed. I think this is the shooter. He moves over there and begins to shoot at the police. Thats why the people get out of the SUV and go back into the dug out. They see him move and they want to be away from the direction he went.

a reply to: MotherMayEye

• Was Matt Mika targeted specifically given the location and number of his gunshot wounds in comparison with the other victims?

No.

originally posted by: Dragoon01
Watch the video again.
I think the guy in the dark pants and grey shirt is the shooter.
The reason he is casually walking out from behind that blue shed and throwing his hand up is because he is shooting.

The shooter supposedly came up that area then retreated and was shot back around between home base and the third base dugout:






And look at this photo...it makes it seem like the blue shed is much closer than the pic you posted from google. Can you post a link to the photo you posted? I tried to find one from google earth, like that, the other day and couldn't find one:



I don't see how the guy in dark could be the shooter and the guy looks unarmed. Plus, he's not in the right plce to have been shot.

I am finding this more and more foul the more we discuss, to be honest.

Who the heck was the guy dressed in dark clothes that stepped out from behind the blue shed? It was not the shooter if the shooter was downed on the other side of home base along the third base side, like reported? The official story has to be modified some more to make sense of it. So I am waiting for that to happen OR to find it in an 'update' to an old article somewhere that I missed until now.

The photos were image grabs from Google Earth Pro.
I did them. There is no doubt its the same location.



This screen grab is from almost the exact location that your picture of the SUV is from. The tree in the foreground is in winter leaves but compare it to the tree just to the left of the two police techs in the foreground of that photo. Also look at the flowers along the path, they are the same. The picture you have in your last post is taken from slightly to the right of the screen grab I did. The path is the same and if you look in the foreground of your photo you see the ball courts that are in front of the bathroom building that the congressmen hid behind. The blue building you see in that photo is the dug out. This is the same location.

I do not believe those drawings above are right. Again watch the video right after Conaway gives his hand signal you see the guy in the dark cloths come form the left behind the blue shed and holds his hand up. then he plays with something in his hands and then moves to the right on the screen. Later we see Conaway standing then the guy from the dug out comes into the picture and as they start to move left we see two officers near the blue shed and they are pointing in on the ground very close to them. It appears they are dealing with the shooter on the ground and he is obscured by the SUV from our view. Thats "near" the area the two drawings above show but its more directly behind home plate.
I will have to figure out how to do captures from the youtube video

duplicate post

a reply to: Dragoon01

I don't doubt it's the correct area. I have other reasons for asking for a link to the view you snapshotted.

And I don't believe several things officially reported are right. You can pick & choose all you want to make the story work. Have fun with that.

a reply to: MotherMayEye

Like I said I did the image captures from GE pro myself so you would just need to go to GE and scroll down to street view to see the exact same thing.
Watching the video again and with a better listen to the audio you can hear the police arrive on site as the sirens stop at that point the shooter is already moved to behind the blue shed. Very soon after this you being to hear return fire from the police in a higher volume. I believe that the shooter had his rifle when he ran behind the blue shed but ditched it around that point and changed over to his pistol. At one point we here someone yell "Behind the blue building!" When the man with the dark cloths on comes out from behind the shed he points toward the camera. We do not hear any shots until he begins to look at his hands. I was mistaken as I thought he was shooting at this point but I think what is going on is this. He has either just changed to his handgun but forgot to work the slide and chamber a round or he has just changed magazines and forgot to work the slide. So thats why he points out with his right hand like he is going to shoot but there are no shots. Then he looks down at the gun and works the slide. While he is doing that we hear a lot of shots coming from the police and that drives him toward the third base dug out, however as he moves he is also firing back because we can distinctly hear the whine of rounds coming toward the cameraman. There is a flash of this man moving BACK to the left toward the blue shed but to see it you have to be looking at Conaway as its just visible to his right. Then we hear more pistol shots and it appears that Conaway is seeing the shooter down as he is standing up. At this point you hear people on the video saying "SHOOT HIM" as we see the police moving by the blue shed someone says "F*** Being NICE".

Looks like Scalise is back in intensive care with sepsis:

www.nola.com...

Scalise was readmitted to the Intensive Care Unit and underwent surgery Thursday because of new concerns for an infection. Scalise's office issued a statement Saturday that the Congressman "tolerated the procedure well" and "will continue healing and treatment" at MedStar Washington.

Is this the best treatment a Congressman can get?
Or is this the hospital where the political opposition is sent to die?

originally posted by: MotherMayEye

originally posted by: LadyGreenEyes
I have to add some commentary here. Looking at the witness statements, and the map. again, it's possible Mika was hit from rounds being shot from the field, from the direction of the shooter. The shed is reported to have been hit, back behind the first base dugout, so being shot in that area is feasible. If he was hit as people were running for cover, to the shed or dugout, or wherever, they might not see him hit. What is needed is evidence showing the trajectories of all rounds fired, if possible, and analysis of all that.

Is there any sort of official mapping of the area/crime scene, that's been released? People can be off in memories, especially in stressful situations.

No official mapping. I based mine on the multiple witness accounts I read.

I can't imagine a scenario where Mike Conaway would run from first base, out the only open gate (right next to first base), and he did not see Mika shot, given his full statements. Mika was already shot by the time he saw him. It would have only taken him seconds to get out the gate and behind the first base dugout.

Conaway was out of the gate quickly and went directly behind the first base dugout where he said he saw Capitol police officers and Mika already on the ground.

Ricocheted shots were reported in the area behind the dugout...but 4 to 5 hitting Mika in the chest and arm before anyone even saw him? That's just not plausible given the physics and timeline of the shots heard.

My concern is that we will never get any clear story on how Mika was shot. The FBI needs two years to investigate and clear Hillary...8 months to investigate Weiner's sexting...but they reached their major conclusions on this shooting within a week.

Appreciate the added data! I haven't had time lately to research anything, really, but it does seem to be a puzzle. Will trust your research in this case. What we will be told, who knows? Never enough.

a reply to: MotherMayEye

***Update to this thread****

Matt Mika did an interview with Good Morning America.

Some INTERESTING takeaways:

1. Matt Mika claims he does not know when or where he was when he was shot:

'We all yelled 'Gun!' I don't know who yelled it first, and we started running,' Mika said, saying he cannot recall the exact place or moment when he was first shot. 'All I know is when I got around to the gate I had blood all over my chest, on my pants.'

Link to ABC News

But apparently he was on the field, at the time. Personally, I think it is VERY strange he remembers everything...but cannot say where he was when he got shot.

However, he says was shot AGAIN, later, once he was off the field and lying by the SUV:

He then ducked behind an SUV in the parking lot when he was shot again. He believes that the fact his hands were up by his head, protected him from what could have been a fatal head shot.

Link to ABC News


2. Matt Mika claims HE is the one that pushed 10-year old Jack Barton into the dugout, as he was running off the field. That completely contradicts Joe Barton's and Jack Bergman's stories that Jack Barton hid under an SUV, outside the gate and behind the dugout, and that Jack Bergman was the one who grabbed Jack Barton and pulled him into the dugout:

While he was running from the gunman, Mika says he saw the 10-year-old son of Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, and he pushed the boy into the safety of a concrete dugout.

Link to ABC News

Jack Bergman's story:

"Joe Barton was [in the dugout]. I know for sure because his son, Jack, was outside the fence underneath the Suburban. I’m yelling at Jack Barton, Joe’s son, to stay under the truck. As a 10-year-old he was popping his head out, wondering what the hell was going on. “Stay under the truck!” He’d look out. ... I’m used to leading Marines, and in that situation, if you have to tell someone to sit down or duck and they turn around and ask why, they’re dead."

AND

"I saw the Capitol Police move toward the gunman. Joe [Barton] and I both hustled, we grabbed Jack [Barton]. We both flew into the dugout. Because now, best scenario, the end of the dugout, the home base side of the dugout was keeping us out of the line [of fire]."

Link to Politico

Joe Barton's story:

“Some of us were in the dugout. Some of us were on the ground. I was behind the dugout. My son Jack got under an SUV. He was very brave...”

Link to People Magazine article

***

I still suspect that Matt Mika was the real target of this shooting and his story doesn't add up with what was already reported. I also find it suspicious that he claims doesn't know where he was or when he was shot in the chest.

I am going to present a scenario considering Matt Mika says he is the one that pushed 10-year old Jack Barton into the first base dugout as he ran off the field wounded in the chest.

Again, that is a direct contradiction to Joe Barton and Jack Bergman who said that Jack Barton hid under an SUV and THEY got him and brought him into the dugout.

I think this is a VERY important discrepancy.

It's clear from Matt's interview on GMA, that he doesn't really want to say when or where he was shot but he is willing to say that by the time he rounded the gate to exit the field, he looked down and had blood all over his chest.

If Matt is correct -- and it was him that pushed Jack Barton into the dugout -- then I think as he was getting him into the dugout, he intended to get in the dugout, too, BUT someone was in the dugout with a gun. That person shot him in the chest so he turned to run off the field. (HENRY CABRERA, possibly -- the third Capitol police officer who was present, but barely mentioned in the media, AND passed over for a Medal of Valor, unlike the other two Capitol police officers who were present, that day.)

I've always thought the story about Jack Barton being under the SUV and then how he was brought into the dugout was WAY sketchy to begin with. It didn't quite add up between Barton's and Bergman's versions AND it was a story they told, right away, and repeated...and dramatically emphasized. And it was STRAINED.

If Matt Mika pushed 10-year old Jack Barton into the dugout, why didn't he get in the dugout, too? He was allegedly shot at that point.

Instead...while wounded in the chest he allegedly runs out the gate -- behind the dugout -- after delivering Jack Barton safely to the dugout.

As to motive, I am curious if it could be found via the House Agriculture Committee (Mike Conway is chair, and he was also present at the shooting), and perhaps the Farm Bill or other big-money agriculture legislation that has benefited CORPORATE FARMING, like Tyson & Perdue.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my theory after hearing what Matt Mika FINALLY had to say.

a reply to: MotherMayEye

Very interesting indeed. I will add this, It is possible that he doesn't know when he got shot due to adrenalin. From a personal note while on patrol a friend of mine got into a firefight. It wasn't until they got back did he notice a gash on his arm from taking cover. He needed 14 stiches to fix it up.

other then that, what you've said about Mika might be true. If he did toss somebody into the dugout like he says, but didn't go in himself, then either something happened in the dugout that he's not saying/can't recall that prevented him from taking cover, or he knew he was the target and wanted to protect his friends.

There certainly is a lot of sketchiness surrounding the shooting, and I'm surprised (well ok not really) that more isn't being reported on. At it's base this was a major attack on our democracy. The number of Congressional members that could have been the target that day would have crippled congress (well crippled it more than it is now).

a reply to: Guyfriday

I agree, in that I felt that was what was intended to be taken away from his story: Adrenaline or chaos...or whatever....caused Matt Mika to not know exactly when he was shot. However, no one else present that day has been able to state when or where Mika was when he got shot either (IOW it wasn't much of a surprise to me that Matt Mika wasn't able to fill in that information...given I already thought the whole story stunk). But, I agree that he could legitimately not know/recall. I personally just don't buy it, all things considered.

Then, there is that HUGE discrepancy between Matt Mika's claim that he delivered Jack Barton to the dugout, and Joe Barton's and Jack Bergman's versions about the SUV...it's a glaring red flag.

I can't imagine why on earth Matt Mika would believe he pushed Jack Barton into the dugout if he didn't.

And if Matt Mika DID push Jack Barton into the dugout...

...then Rep Joe Barton and Rep Jack Bergman made up an elaborate story about Jack Barton being under an SUV, Bergman instructing him to stay under it "like he would have with one of his Marines," and eventually grabbing him and pulling him into the dugout.

Why the HUGE lie? Why did they make up the story?

That's just too big of a discrepancy to not cast doubt on the entire story of the shooting, IMO.

And then, of course, it stands to reason that if most everyone took cover in the dugout...why wouldn't Matt Mika? Something caused him to run away from the dugout after he delivered Jack Barton there.

Lastly, there is the curious fact that only two other people were shot: Scalise (hip) & a staffer (calf). The Capitol Police Officer was struck by a ricocheted bullet (ankle)....but then Matt Mika was not only shot in the chest, on the field, he was later shot AGAIN in the arm behind the dugout.

I can't help but think that transcends mere bad luck.

And I really, really agree with you that this shooting deserves more attention and scrutiny.