Butler SWAT operator's shot delayed Trump rally gunman before Secret Service killed him: report
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A local sniper likely saved lives at former President Donald Trump's rally in Butler Township last month when his single shot hit the attempted assassin's gun.
A report from Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins said a Butler SWAT operator shot the gun of the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, from about 100 yards away. The shot hit the gunman's rifle stock and fragmented into his face, neck and right shoulder area from the stock breaking into pieces.
Crooks went down but recovered after just a few seconds and popped back up, the report says. The shot delayed the shooter long enough for a United States Secret Service sniper to take the fatal shot.
Rep. Mike Kelly talks investigation into assassination attempt
A Pennsylvania congressman who was on the ground in Butler Township for three days submitted his preliminary report to the U.S. House task force investigating the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly of Butler made that report public on Thursday.
"The faith and trust and confidence the American people have to have has been shaken so badly," Kelly, a Republican representing Pennsylvania's 16th District, said.
The Butler native and chair of the U.S. House task force investigating the assassination attempt on July 13 was at the rally that day. Now more than one month later, he has more questions than answers.
"The one thing we know: If they can't give you a definitive answer, it's because there was no definitive plan," Kelly said.
Two weeks earlier, acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. testified before Congress. He showed a picture of the AGR roof, insisting local counter snipers inside a nearby building should have seen the shooter on the roof.
Local law enforcement working the rally said they told the Secret Service they did not have the manpower to do it.
"I was disappointed, first of all, that someone in that position would go ahead and make this supposition and say here's the problem, the local guys didn't do their job," Kelly said.
"Law enforcement came in to help out that day, not to take the place of the federal agents that were there," Kelly added.
Eight minutes before the shooting, officers saw the gunman moving between buildings at the AGR complex. That information was sent from the county command post to the Secret Service's separate command post.
At the same time, a video shows panicked police and troopers with guns drawn searching for the shooter while Trump is speaking on stage.
"Why do you think they did not take former president Trump off the stage?" KDKA-TV's Jennifer Borrasso asked Kelly.
"I have absolutely no idea," Kelly said.
Law enforcement could not get to the shooter before he fired eight shots, injuring Trump, David Dutch and Jim Copenhaver and killing Corey Comperatore.
"If they were suspicious of somebody being there that shouldn't be there, just keep them back. Corey would be alive today, the other two men that were wounded would not be wounded. The president would not have been wounded."
