Crime & Safety
PA State Police Chief, Butler DA Spar Over Trump Rally Shooting Events
Butler County's DA and the PA State Police commander are offering different versions of the Donald Trump assassination attempt.
BUTLER, PA — Butler County's district attorney and the head of the Pennsylvania State Police are at odds over the circumstances surrounding the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
District Attorney Richard Goldinger issued a statement Wednesday disputing congressional testimony from State Police Col. Christopher Paris that two Butler County law enforcement officers left a strategically important post shortly before the attempt occurred.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, opened fire from a nearby building rooftop, wounding Trump's ear and shooting three spectators - one fatally. A U.S. Secret Service agent shot and killed Crooks at the scene.
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Testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday, Paris said that two snipers positioned at a second-floor window in an AGR International building left their post to search for Crooks when they saw him acting suspiciously on the ground. They and other law enforcement officers were unable to locate him, Paris said.
Goldinger disputed that version of events.
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"For clarification, neither officer left their post, as was testified at the hearing," he said in the statement. "Their post was the building."
However, Goldinger acknowledged that one of the snipers briefly left the building to search for Crooks before returning when he could not find him.
Goldinger also asserted that neither officer could see Crooks on the rooftop due to the visual angle they had from their location to his location.
In another development, one of the two spectators who were shot at the rally but survived has been released from the hospital. David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, was discharged on Wednesday, according to the Allegheny Health Network.
The other man wounded, James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon, remains hospitalized in stable but serious condition.
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