The local police’s shots caused the would-be assassin to briefly step back from his rooftop perch, according to two officials and an analysis of video evidence by The Washington Post. According to an acoustic expert who examined the gunfire, Crooks’ retreat coincided with a 10-second pause in firing, a critical moment that ended when a Secret Service countersniper shot and killed Crooks.
A local police officer reportedly opened fire on Crooks, but analysis suggests the officer may have played a more significant role. The response to the attack at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13 was more vigorous than ever.
One of the people who spoke to The Washington Post was a local police officer close to the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The other, Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger, confirmed that members of the county’s SWAT-like Emergency Services Unit (ESU) fired shots at Crooks, who responded.
“I don’t know if the officers shot Crooks and I don’t believe they fired shots to neutralize him,” Goldinger, who oversees the emergency services unit, said in a text message, but he believes the officers’ shots caused Crooks to stop firing, buying time for a Secret Service sniper to kill the gunman.
A third person familiar with the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not been made public, confirmed that a Butler police officer shot Crooks before a Secret Service counter-sniper opened fire. Investigators have not found evidence that a local police officer’s bullet struck the gunman, the person said, but witnesses said Crooks appeared to move after the shots were fired.
Video recordings taken at the rally showed 10 shots fired over a period of about 16 seconds. Four acoustic experts consulted by The Washington Post said the first eight shots, fired in bursts of three and five shots, had similar acoustic signatures and were likely fired by Crooks, who was armed with an AR-15-style rifle.
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told lawmakers last week that eight shell casings were found on the roof where Crooks opened fire. The FBI said a bullet or shrapnel grazed Trump’s ear and injured three spectators, one of whom died.
A ninth gunshot was heard less than a second after the final eight shots were fired, followed by 10 seconds of silence.
A local police official close to the investigation said it was unclear whether local officers’ shots struck Crooks, but the official said Crooks changed position shortly after the shots were fired. Crooks stopped firing at the rally and crouched behind the sloping rooftop where he was perched, the official said.
After the local police officer fired his shot, “there was clearly some kind of reaction,” the official said. “Crooks went down and no further shots were fired.”
Officials credited local police with thwarting Crooks’ attack, saying, “If we can stop the shooter, we can prevent an even more tragic situation.”
Officials’ account is backed up by video taken about 100 feet west of the building where Crooks opened fire by John Mullis, a 52-year-old Pennsylvania resident who was watching the rally from a spot just outside the Secret Service security perimeter.
Crooks aroused the suspicions of local police when he wandered outside the rally with a golf rangefinder. As police were searching for Crooks, he climbed onto the roof of the warehouse at 6:11 pm and began firing. Mullis’ video, first published by Fox News, records eight gunshots fired by Crooks and a ninth. After the ninth shot, Crooks is seen on the video turning so that his face is visible to the crowd on the west side of the building, away from the rally. He appears to have since repositioned himself, according to The Post’s analysis.
According to local law enforcement officials, the local officers who opened fire on Crooks were stationed in a barn behind and north of the rally stage, along with the Butler County Responder Rapid Response Unit.
The policeman, who was not a sniper, He left the barn and was on the ground nearby. Officials said Crooks began firing from a rooftop about 110 yards away, and a local officer saw a flash from the muzzle of Crooks’ rifle and fired his rifle at Crooks.
Rally attendees told The Post they also witnessed local police fire at Crooks from the same spot.
The worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized by his employer to speak publicly, said they were standing at the back of the bleachers on the north side of the stage when Crooks fired the first shot. The crowd panicked while local police officers took aim, the worker said.
“Everyone else was moving, and he wasn’t moving,” the worker said. “I remember thinking, ‘He’s not panicking, he’s not screaming,’ and I remember him firing his gun and I remember thinking, ‘I need to take cover.'”
A Secret Service spokesman said the FBI was best suited to answer The Washington Post’s questions about the local police officer’s shooting at Crooks.
FBI officials confirmed that a Butler County police officer fired his gun at the gunman and that the officer’s weapon was taken to an FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for further analysis. Firearms experts in Quantico are also examining the gunman’s weapon, an AR-15-style rifle with a folding stock, as well as the weapon used by a Secret Service counter-sniper, FBI officials said.
FBI officials said the bullet that killed Crooks was fired by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
Mullis’ video shows the 10th shot being fired and Crooks then collapsing. “He’s down,” a bystander yells, according to the Mullis recording. It then zooms in to show Crooks’ body lying on the roof.
A local law enforcement official told The Post that a Butler County officer was preparing to fire a second shot at Crooks when the Secret Service shot him. Officials confirmed that a total of 10 shots were fired: eight by Crooks, one by a Butler County officer and one by the Secret Service.
Imogen Piper and John Swain contributed to this report.