Trump rally gunman stopped firing after local officer shot at him

The shot from the local officer caused the would-be assassin to temporarily recoil from his perch on a rooftop, according to the two officials and a Washington Post analysis of video evidence. Crooks’s retreat coincided with a 10-second pause in shooting, according to audio experts who examined the gunshots, a critical period that ended when the Secret Service countersniper shot and killed him.

It has been reported that a local officer fired at Crooks, but the analysis suggests that the officer may have played a more important role than previously known in responding to the attack at a July 13 rally in Pennsylvania.

One of the people who spoke to The Post, a local law enforcement officer close to the investigation, did so on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The other, Richard Goldinger, the district attorney for Butler County, confirmed that a member of the county’s Emergency Services Unit (ESU), similar to a SWAT team, fired a shot at Crooks that prompted a reaction from the gunman.

“I don’t know if the officer actually hit Crooks and don’t believe he fired the neutralizing shot,” Goldinger, who oversees the Emergency Services Unit, said in a text message. But Goldinger said he believed the officer’s shot caused Crooks to stop firing his weapon, buying the Secret Service snipers time to kill the gunman.