By Joanna Putman
Police1
BUTLER, Pa. — A local law enforcement officer assigned to a SWAT team returned fire during the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, causing the shooter to momentarily pause before being killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper, the Washington Post reported.
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Officials confirmed that Thomas Matthew Crooks stopped shooting after the Butler officer returned fire from his position on a rooftop, according to the report. Crooks did not fire again before he was neutralized by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
The Butler officer’s shot forced Crooks to recoil from his perch, resulting in a 10-second pause in gunfire, according to a Washington Post analysis of video evidence and statements from officials. This critical period allowed the Secret Service sniper to take decisive action.
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger confirmed that a member of the county’s Emergency Services Unit fired at Crooks.
“I don’t know if the officer actually hit Crooks and don’t believe he fired the neutralizing shot,” Goldinger said, but he credited the officer’s action with interrupting Crooks’s attack.
Crooks fired eight shots in quick succession before the local officer returned fire, causing him to stop shooting and slump behind the roof’s crest, according to the report. Shortly thereafter, the Secret Service counter-sniper fired the fatal shot.
The incident resulted in ten shots over roughly 16 seconds: eight by Crooks, one by the local officer, and one by the Secret Service sniper. Crooks, armed with an AR-15-style rifle, had roused suspicion earlier by milling around the rally site with a golf range finder, according to the report. Local police were looking for him when he started shooting from the rooftop.
Eight spent cartridges were recovered from the roof, and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray confirmed that Trump was grazed by a bullet fragment. Three spectators were also wounded, one fatally.
The FBI, which confirmed the local officer’s involvement, has taken the officer’s weapon to its laboratory in Quantico, Va., for further analysis, according to the report. The FBI is also examining Crooks’s weapon and the Secret Service sniper’s rifle.
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