Donald Trump's would-be assassin stopped shooting at the former president after being fired upon by a local law enforcement officer assigned to a SWAT team, The Washington Post reported.
Alleged shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks then was killed by a Secret Service countersniper, sources familiar with the investigation into the July 13 assassination attempt told The Post.
The local officer's shot caused Crooks to temporarily recoil from his perch on a rooftop. Following a 10-second pause in shooting, the Secret Service countersniper shot and killed the shooter.
The local officer, who was not a sniper, was outside on the ground nearby when Crooks began firing from the rooftop, one official said.
Butler County (Pa.) District Attorney Richard Goldinger confirmed that a member of the county’s Emergency Services Unit (ESU), similar to a SWAT team, fired a shot at Crooks, The Post said.
"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, told the outlet in a text message.
Goldinger added that he believed the officer's shot caused Crooks to stop firing his weapon, buying time for the Secret Service snipers to kill the gunman.
Trump was wounded in the ear, one spectator was killed and two others wounded at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate are testifying about the shooting Tuesday at a joint hearing of the Senate committees on the Judiciary and Homeland Security.
Rowe became acting director of the agency last week after Kimberly Cheatle resigned in the aftermath of a House hearing in which she was berated by lawmakers and failed to answer specific questions about the communication failures preceding the shooting.
Video recordings from the rally indicate 10 shots were fired in the span of roughly 16 seconds.
The Post consulted four audio experts who said the first eight shots have similar acoustic signatures and probably were fired by Crooks, who was armed with an AR-15-style rifle.
The House on Monday announced 13 lawmakers will make up a bipartisan task force investigating the July 13 assassination attempt.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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