Gunman at Trump rally stopped fire after local police officer shot him

The local officer’s shot caused the assassin to temporarily retreat from his post on a rooftop, according to the two officials and an analysis of video evidence by The Washington Post. Crooks’ retreat coincided with a 10-second lull in the firing, according to audio experts who examined the shooting. That critical period ended when the Secret Service sniper shot and killed him.

It was reported that a local officer shot Crooks, but analysis suggests the officer may have played a more significant role than previously known, in response to the attack at a rally on July 13 in Pennsylvania.

One of the people who spoke to The Post, a local police officer familiar with the investigation, did so on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The other, Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger, confirmed that a member of the county’s Emergency Services Unit (ESU), which is similar to a SWAT team, fired one shot at Crooks, which provoked a response from the gunman.

“I don’t know if the officer actually hit Crooks and don’t believe he fired the neutralizing shot,” Goldinger, who heads the emergency dispatch unit, said in a text message. But Goldinger said he believes the officer’s shot caused Crooks to stop using his weapon, giving Secret Service snipers time to kill the gunman.

According to video footage taken at the rally, 10 shots were fired in about 16 seconds. Four audio experts interviewed by The Post said the first eight shots, fired in bursts of three and five, had similar acoustic signatures and were likely fired by Crooks, who was armed with an AR-15-style rifle.

Eight bullet casings were found on the roof from which Crooks fired, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told lawmakers last week. Trump’s ear was grazed by a bullet or bullet fragment, according to the FBI, and three bystanders were injured, one fatally.

Less than a second after the last of these eight shots, a ninth shot is heard, followed by a ten-second pause.

The local police official familiar with the investigation did not know if the local officer’s shot hit Crooks. But shortly after the shot, Crooks changed his position, the official said. Crooks stopped firing at the gathering place and settled behind the edge of the roof where he was perched, the official said.

After the local police officer fired the shot, “there was definitely a reaction,” the officer said. “Crooks slumped over and he didn’t fire another shot.”

The officer thanked the local police officer for stopping Crooks’ attack. “Anything that disrupts an active shooter can prevent the situation from becoming even more catastrophic.”

The officer’s account is supported by video taken about 100 feet west of the building from which Crooks fired. The footage was provided by Jon Malis, a 52-year-old Pennsylvania resident who observed the rally from that location, just outside the Secret Service security perimeter.

Crooks had aroused the suspicions of local police when he was loitering outside the rally with a golf rangefinder. They were searching for him when he crawled onto the roof of a warehouse complex and began shooting at 6:11 p.m. Malis’ video, first released by Fox News, records the sound of Crooks’ eight shots and then the sound of a ninth shot. After that ninth shot, the video shows Crooks turning around so that his face is visible to the crowd on the west side of the building, away from the rally. Post’s analysis shows that he then seems to be repositioning himself.

The local police officer who shot Crooks was assigned to a barn behind and north of the rally stage along with a Butler County counterattack and response team, the local police official said.

The officer, who was not a sniper, had left the barn and was lying outside on the ground near when Crooks began firing from the roof about 100 yards away, the official said. The local officer saw the muzzle flash from Crooks’ rifle, the official said, and fired his rifle at Crooks.

A rally worker told The Post he saw the local police officer shoot Crooks from the same spot.

The employee, who asked to remain anonymous because his employer had not given him permission to speak publicly, said he was standing behind the bleachers north of the stage when Crooks fired his first shots. The employee said spectators panicked while the local officer took aim.

“Everyone else was moving, but he wasn’t,” the worker said. “I remember thinking, ‘He’s not freaking out, he’s not screaming.’ He fired his gun, and I remember thinking, ‘We need to get to cover.'”

A Secret Service spokesman said the FBI was best placed to answer The Post’s questions about the local police officer’s shooting of Crooks.

FBI officials confirmed that a Butler County police officer shot the shooter and that the officer’s weapon was taken to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for further analysis. Firearms experts at Quantico are also currently examining the shooter’s weapon, an AR-15-style rifle with a folding stock, as well as the weapon used by the Secret Service sniper, FBI officials said.

FBI officials have said a Secret Service sniper fired the fatal shot at Crooks.

Malis’ video shows the tenth shot and Crooks’ subsequent collapse. “He’s on the ground,” a bystander shouted, according to Malis’ footage, which then zooms in to show Crooks’ body lying on the roof.

The local police officer told the Post that the Butler County police officer was about to fire a second shot at Crooks when the Secret Service agent shot him. The officer confirmed there were 10 shots in total: eight from Crooks, one from the Butler County police officer and the last from the Secret Service agent.

Imogen Piper and Jon Swaine contributed to this report.