In their accounts of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, federal agencies have rewritten the story to leave out a hero, according to family members of a local SWAT team member whose shot incapacitated Thomas Crooks before a Secret Service sniper killed him.
Sgt. Aaron Zaliponi of the Adams Township Emergency Service Unit SWAT team is recognized in the “Final Report of Findings and Recommendations from the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of President Trump” as firing the shot, according to the New York Post.
But the outlet said federal agencies “erased” Zaliponi’s efforts.
In its report, the FBI glossed over the shot, which hit the would-be assassin’s gunstock and shattered it, “causing an explosion of shrapnel [which] smashed into Crooks’ right neck and jaw area.”
Zaliponi’s shot “set up the delayed but successful kill shot by a Secret Service counter-sniper,” the report on the July 2024 incident in Butler, Pennsylvania, said.
Zaliponi told the task force, “I knew I hit him… I have combat experience. His demeanor… there was that jerking motion… he kind of jerked down to my left, his right. Then he slowly rolled like he just had no strength, whatever.”
Crooks did not fire again after being hit. The panel found that 10 seconds elapsed until a Secret Service sniper killed the would-be assassin.
“The shot neutralized Thomas Crooks,” Kim Geyer, Zaliponi’s mother-in-law, said. “It prevented a mass shooting. He saved a lot of lives that day.”
“Ask anyone who was there. There was over a 10-second pause, and it wasn’t until after that 10 seconds a Secret Service sniper took Thomas Crooks down,” she said, adding that local police “were thrown under the bus by the Secret Service and the FBI.”
“He was on the ground, and he was shooting up to Thomas Crooks,” Geyer said, adding that after Zaliponi fired, “Crooks rolled over, and he was stunned.”
But the federal agencies wanted no local heroes, she argued.
“As far as the FBI and the Secret Service go, nobody wanted to take this into account. They just wanted the narrative to be that Thomas Crooks was killed and the threat was eliminated. The Secret Service wanted the credit, that after massive security failures they got their act together and took this guy out,” Geyer said.
“There was no consideration that our local people, who weren’t there to protect the president, ended up being the ones that neutralized the threat,” she added.
Others have nevertheless honored Zaliponi.
“President Donald J. Trump’s life was saved by an armed American in Butler, Pennsylvania. Thanks to swift action by law enforcement officers like Sgt. Aaron Zaliponi, an even greater tragedy was prevented,” the National Rifle Association said in awarding Zaliponi its 2025 “Officer of the Year” award.
The sergeant’s actions also earned him the “In the Face of Danger Award,” which was presented by Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday last year, according to WTAE-TV.
“When gunfire suddenly erupted from the rooftop of a nearby building, Sgt. Zaliponi immediately recognized the threat. Without any hesitation, repositioning, or moving to cover, despite the extreme danger to his own life, he calmly shouldered his rifle,” Sunday told the crowd.
“In less than six seconds after the first shot was fired from 115 yards away, Sgt. Zaliponi acquired his target and fired a single accurate round, stopping the threat,” Sunday added.
By Western Journal – https://www.westernjournal.com/heroic-crack-shot-local-cop-sniper-saved-trumps-life-erased-news-embarrassed-feds-family/
