My VIP for this week is Sgt. Aaron M. Zaliponi of the Adams Township Police Department. Zaliponi is the Butler County SWAT operator who shot at would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks and ended his ability to continuing firing at former President Donald Trump on July 13.
According to Joseph M. Hanneman at Blaze News, U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) revealed Zaliponi as the SWAT operator from Butler County during “during the first hearing of the House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump.
According to testimony at the hearing,
Zaliponi quickly acquired Crooks in the sight of his M4 rifle while Crooks was
firing his AR-15 at Trump and the rally crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Zaliponi fired what became known as shot
No. 9, which knocked Crooks down and prevented him from resuming his attack
before a U.S. Secret Service counter-sniper fired a fatal shot to the head.
‘As I’m getting my target acquired, I’m
getting my red dot up, I can see the gas emit from his barrel, his muzzle.’
“My investigation thus far leads me to
conclude that Zaliponi’s ‘shot 9’ impacted Crooks in some way, effectively
stopping him from ever squeezing the trigger again,” Higgins told Blaze News
after the hearing. “Stock of his AR or into his rear shoulder, I’m not sure,
but impact.
“Zaliponi never took his red dot off of
Crooks, and as Crooks rose up from shot 9, Zaliponi was a half-second away from
pressing another round into Crooks when the USSS southern counter-sniper team
ended the threat,” Higgins said.
The hearing served as a bit of redemption
for state and local Pennsylvania police, who were initially blamed by the
Secret Service for Trump being shot in the ear during a speech before tens of
thousands of rally-goers at the Butler Farm Show Inc. fairgrounds.
The
hearing opened the door for the truth to come out about who actually saved
Trump that day. This helped heal the wounds of having the finger pointed at the
local police officers.
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