DA disputes testimony officers left posts to look for Trump rally shooter

By RYAN DETO
Trib Total Media

The Butler County district attorney on Wednesday disputed congressional testimony that two Butler County law enforcement officers left a key post shortly before a gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop at former President Donald Trump — even as he acknowledged that one officer briefly did just that.

Pennsylvania State Police Col. Christopher Paris told a congressional committee Tuesday that two Butler County Emergency Services Unit officers were stationed at a second-floor window in the complex of buildings that form AGR International Inc., about 400 feet from where Trump was speaking at a rally at the Butler Farm Show Complex on July 13.

Paris told the committee the officers spotted Thomas Crooks, the alleged shooter, acting suspiciously on the ground and left their post to look for him along with other law enforcement officers.

But Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger insisted in a statement that the officers didn’t abandon their posts inside the AGR building. He called Paris’ assertion “misinformation.”

“To say that these officers left their post is a misstatement,” Goldinger wrote. “They performed the duties to which they were assigned.”

Lt. Adam Reed, a state police spokesman, said Wednesday evening, “Our agency stands by yesterday’s testimony. The investigation into the shooting and its aftermath continues.”

Goldinger said Emergency Services Unit officers from Butler and Beaver counties were stationed inside one of the buildings in the AGR complex.

The officers — snipers stationed on the second floor of the AGR building — observed a suspicious person during the rally, who later was identified as Crooks.

The district attorney did not specify whether the officers involved were from Butler or Beaver.

Goldinger said the officers saw Crooks sitting outside the building. The officers photographed him, circulated the picture to other law enforcement and notified other Emergency Services Unit officers. That information was passed on to the Secret Service and Pennsylvania State Police, Goldinger said.

When Crooks ran from his location carrying a backpack, one officer ran out of the building attempting to “keep eyes on Crooks,” Goldinger said. The other officer stayed on the building’s second floor, according to Goldinger.

The DA said the officer who went to look for Crooks could not find him, so he returned to the building.

Goldinger said the officer “briefly” left the building, although he did not say how long the officer was gone.

Both officers then heard shots fired, according to Goldinger.

“For clarification, neither officer left their post, as was testified at the hearing on July 23. Their post was the building. While one of the officers did leave the building briefly, it was in response to a suspicious person…” Goldinger wrote. “Even so, that officer returned to the post, and the post was never left vacant as the other officer remained in the building.”

“Further,” the DA continued, “neither officer could see Crooks on the other side of the building due to the visual angle they had from their location to Crooks’ location.”

Goldinger’s statement comes amid growing questions about a multitude of security failures that allowed the 20-year-old gunman from Bethel Park to get onto the roof and fire eight shots with an AR-style rifle into the crowd shortly after Trump began speaking.

One rallygoer was killed, and two were injured. Trump suffered an ear injury but was not seriously hurt.

The Associated Press reported Paris did not know whether officers would have been able to see Crooks climbing up to a nearby rooftop if they had stayed at the window.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday, a day after she was berated for hours by lawmakers over the agency’s failure to protect the Republican presidential nominee.

Cheatle told lawmakers on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday that the assassination attempt was the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.