Weapons & Guns

The fatal police shooting of Sonya Massey has saddened Solange Knowles like many Americans -- and she's making a nuanced point about this being a regular thing in the U.S.

After taking in the brutal body cam footage that was released this week -- Solange called out America for its historic treatment of Black women ... scoffing at the responding officer's disbelief Sonya had asked not to be hurt right from the get-go when they arrived.

Sonya's plea still resulted in her dead on her kitchen floor with a bullet in her head, and Solange says words don't hold the same weight for Black women as they do everyone else.

Life goes on for Thomas Matthew Crooks' father in the wake of his son's death following an assassination attempt on Donald Trump ... because he was just seen in public for the first time since the deadly rally.

Matthew Brian Crooks ventured out Monday in the family's Bethel Park, PA hometown ... stocking up on groceries and heading back to his car ... refusing to answer questions about his now-infamous son.

The Crooks patriarch told a Fox News Digital photog the family would release a statement when advised by their legal team ... and until then, they have no comment on anything.

Sonya Massey's father is sharing his heartbreak after his daughter was shot and killed in her home by a white police officer ... slamming the deputy as a devilish figure.

James Wilburn spoke with Gayle King on "CBS Mornings" after body cam footage of the shooting showed Sangamon County Sheriff's Deputy Sean Grayson shooting Massey earlier this month ... this after she'd actually called 911 for help.

According to her dad, he claims he was never told a deputy was involved with the untimely passing of his daughter, and says he was led to believe an intruder shot and killed his daughter. JW said he learned about the facts of the case from his brother ... and felt they had been misled as part of what he characterized as an alleged "cover-up."

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is throwing in the towel on her job at the federal agency -- this after the bungled attempted assassination of Donald Trump ... and all the scrutiny that's followed, TMZ has confirmed.

Cheatle tendered her resignation Tuesday effective immediately, just a day after she was on Capitol Hill getting grilled by lawmakers over the bungled security detail with Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania ... where he was shot by Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Multiple members of Congress demanded answers from Cheatle on what exactly went wrong that weekend -- and most of her responses were vague or unsatisfactory to the House members ... with many of them demanding she exit stage left since the buck stops with her.

New body cam footage shows the moment a white police officer in Illinois shot and killed a Black woman named Sonya Massey ... who actually called 911 for help.

The footage was released by authorities in Springfield, IL Monday -- which depicts Sangamon County Sheriff's Deputy Sean Grayson facing off with Massey earlier this month after she called the cops over suspicions of a prowler near her home.

In the video ... you see Grayson and his partner in Massey's house, where they're asking her to provide her ID -- and eventually, they tell her to get a boiling pot of water off the stove.

Rep. Eli Crane is checking out the perch where Thomas Matthew Crooks fired at Donald Trump ... and he's questioning how the shooter slipped past the Secret Service.

The Republican Congressman from Arizona is in Butler, PA investigating the scene of the Trump rally shooting ... and he's sharing video from the infamous sloped roof where Crooks opened fire on Trump before Secret Service countersnipers killed him.

A former Navy SEAL sniper himself, Rep. Crane disputes the Secret Service claim it didn't have personnel on the roof because of its slope ... and he's wondering why there wasn't a sniper posted on a nearby water tower, which offers a clear view of the roof where Crooks took up position.

The manager for Yo Gotti's CMG Records artist EST Gee is dead after a shooting that happened on the heels of the label's homecoming concert -- an event where cops anticipated potential violence.

Louisville police spokesperson Aaron Ellis told local outlets they found 31-year-old EST Big Beach -- real name, Devontae Beach -- with gunshot wounds inside a vehicle close to where the "Sky Dwella" rapper performed Saturday night.

Beach was pronounced dead on the scene shortly after EMS arrived, and police are now searching for suspects.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is joining lawmakers in grilling the director of the Secret Service -- and she thinks the timetable to investigate the Trump shooting is BS.

The NY congresswoman -- who's one of Trump's biggest critics, and seen as incredibly liberal -- shocked many from across the aisle after she too dogpiled Kimberly Cheatle during her testimony on Capitol Hill ... asking hard questions about the attempted assassination.

In addition to pointing out how much of a failure the security was that day -- AOC said she found it absolutely unacceptable that it'll take 60 days to get clear answers.

9:21 AM PT -- Director Kimberly Cheatle just acknowledged that the Secret Service did not pause the rally despite the fact that agents and others saw Thomas Matthew Crooks on the roof and around the fairgrounds well before Donald Trump was up onstage talking.

She didn't have a clear answer for why officials didn't get Trump outta there despite this ... simply saying they're still looking into who communicated what to who, and when.

The Secret Service Director is getting grilled on Capitol Hill over the assassination attempt on Donald Trump -- and she's acknowledging the Secret Service screwed the pooch.

There's growing skepticism Donald Trump was hit by a bullet, and the latest to join the chorus is former ESPN host Keith Olbermann.

TMZ reported hours after the shooting, a well-placed source who had spoken with Secret Service told us ... Trump was hit by pieces of glass that had shattered during the gunfire.

The narrative changed almost immediately when the official word came out ... that Trump was grazed in the ear by an errant bullet, and had he not turned his head he would have been dead.

Donald Trump is now getting in on all the Secret Service bashing a week after his attempted assassination.

The 2024 Republican presidential nominee and his VP pick J.D. Vance sat down for an interview with Fox News host, Jesse Watters, which will air Monday on the network.

In a teaser clip released Saturday, Trump slammed the Secret Service for not protecting him at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally last weekend.

A woman accused of shooting a 7-month-old infant on the streets of Philadelphia has been arrested ... and TMZ has obtained her mug shot.

Dominique Billips -- the 28-year-old accused of the crime -- has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault, violation of the Uniform Firearms Act (VUFA), and related offenses according to a press release from Philly PD.

PPD says they arrested Billips Friday -- the day after the caught-on-camera shooting -- apprehending her without incident.

MAGA supporters are already flocking to a Michigan stadium ahead of Donald Trump's rally Saturday -- and it will mark his first such event since the attempt on his life last weekend.

Trump's "Make America Great Again" devotees came out in force early this morning, huddling behind metal police barriers outside the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, MI.

Many more though are expected as the venue holds about 12,000 people for when Trump -- the 2024 Republican presidential nominee -- arrives to give his speech at 2 PM PT. His VP running mate J.D. Vance will also be in attendance.

Donald Trump's former COVID czar Anthony Fauci doesn't think very much of the Republican presidential nominee's bullet wound that he suffered during his attempted assassination.

In fact, Fauci called the injury to Trump's right ear "superficial" during a televised interview Friday with CNN host Wolf Blitzer.

Check out the video ... Wolf kicked things off by asking Fauci what more the public needed to know about Trump's injuries after he was shot at his campaign rally in Pennsylvania last weekend.

Thomas Matthew Crooks clearly put in serious practice at a gun range before trying to kill Donald Trump -- because now we know just how bad of a shot he was in high school, and why he didn't make his rifle team.

TMZ has spoken to sources who are directly familiar with Crooks' attempt to get on that team at Bethel Park High School, and we're told he had a disastrous effort on the shooting range ... sometime between 2018 and 2019 which resulted in him not making the squad.

Our sources -- who knew Crooks personally -- tell us he wasn't just a bad shot ... he was a total mess with a firearm, which was proven when he accidentally shot into a completely different lane from his own.

Thomas Matthew Crooks took in the lay of the land at the Donald Trump rally ... reportedly by flying a drone over the event before climbing a roof and opening fire.

The would-be assassin filmed aerial footage with the drone shortly before Trump took the stage ... law enforcement sources told the Wall Street Journal.

Crooks flew the drone along a pre-planned route ... suggesting Trump's shooter did a good amount of research at the site of the Butler, PA rally.