A hero cop who saved President Trump from assassination at the rally in Butler, Pa., in 2024 has been snubbed for years by embarrassed federal officials, his family claimed to The Post.
Local SWAT team member Sgt. Aaron Zaliponi is recognized in official reports as firing the shot that stopped would-be assassin Thomas Crooks at the campaign rally on July 13.
“The shot neutralized Thomas Crooks,” Kim Geyer, Zaliponi’s mother-in-law, told The Post in an exclusive interview. “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.”
Crooks opened fire at 6:11 p.m. from the roof of a shed located just outside the main security perimeter about 400 feet from Trump, and got off eight shots before Zaliponi responded.
His shot, known as the “ninth shot” in official reports, hit Crooks’ gunstock and shattered it, “causing an explosion of shrapnel [which] smashed into Crooks’ right neck and jaw area,” according to the bipartisan congressional report into the shooting, stopping his bloody rampage before the Secret Service sniper fired the kill shot, which hit Crooks’ head.
Zaliponi, of the Adams Township Emergency Service Unit SWAT team, was stationed behind a barn 115 yards from Crooks, whose bullets grazed President Trump’s ear, killed 50-year-old former fire chief Corey Comperatore and critically injured two other rally attendees.
“He was on the ground, and he was shooting up to Thomas Crooks,” said Geyer, adding that after Zaliponi fired, “Crooks rolled over, and he was stunned.”
The “Final Report of Findings and Recommendations from the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of President Trump” concluded Zaliponi’s shot “set up the delayed but successful kill shot by a Secret Service counter-sniper.”
It also included testimony from Zaliponi, who said: “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.”
However, the FBI said it found no forensic evidence that the ninth shot hit Crooks or his rifle.
“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.
“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,” said Geyer.
That day, Geyer was seated in the bleachers behind Trump some 20 feet away from the podium when shots rang out, and the bloodied once-and-future president hit the floor.
“That’s not to diminish what that Secret Service sniper did. He deserves credit. He was doing his job and protecting the president,” said Geyer.
The sniper who fatally struck Crooks has never been publicly named, though the president has referred to him as “David” in interviews.
According to detailed shot-by-shot audio and video analysis compiled by a bipartisan House task force, 10.05 seconds elapsed between Zaliponi’s ninth shot and the Secret Service sniper’s shot.
Meanwhile, 5.86 seconds had passed between the moment Crooks first opened fire and when Zaliponi shot him.
X-rays from Crooks’ autopsy reviewed by The Post show a shattered bullet in Crooks’s right shoulder.
Geyer said the gun her son-in-law used to neutralize the deranged killer was taken by the FBI for ballistics analysis and still has not been returned.
Three months after the assassination attempt, a defiant Trump returned to the scene hosting a “Return Rally” in Butler on Oct. 4, 2024. During that event, he welcomed local first responders from the day of the shooting on stage.
Geyer said Zaliponi was working the October event, too, but amazingly not even invited on stage.
She said the family remains baffled by the presidential cold shoulder, considering Trump has always been eager to celebrate hero cops.
In his second term alone, he has established a new presidential honor, the Medal of Sacrifice, given posthumously to law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
This year Trump has also hosted police events in the Rose Garden, attended a memorial service for three fallen Florida cops and personally thanked NYPD Officer Aaron Edwards at a White House event for his March 2026 actions during an attempted terrorist attack in New York City.
But for the man who saved the president’s own life, it’s been zilch for Zaliponi.
In the meantime, gun rights organizations, the fraternal order of police, the Pennsylvania attorney general and even the city of Pittsburgh have all stepped up to recognize their local hero, showering accolades on him, that so far haven’t resonated outside his corner of the Keystone State.
“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, which awarded Zaliponi its 2025 “Officer of the Year” award, wrote on social media to mark the two-year anniversary of the Butler incident.
Geyer, a Republican who serves as commissioner for Butler County, said she doesn’t believe the snub from Washington is personal, adding that she believes the FBI and Secret Service are so embarrassed by the events of that day, they’ve got no choice but to cling to the one redemptive detail: their guy saved the day, even if that means glossing over the local cops.
“They were thrown under the bus by the Secret Service and the FBI,” she said.
“It all started with a coin toss. The president’s people said they wanted one of the local guys with the president’s motorcade. It came between Aaron and this other officer. Aaron said, ‘Somebody flip a coin,’ and Aaron lost and was positioned outside the barn.”
The loving mother-in-law called it an “act of God” Zaliponi was even there in the first place.
Zaliponi refused to comment for this article, saying only that he’s “not looking for publicity.”
He also didn’t tell his family until weeks after that tragic day, when they were vacationing at a lake house.
“I had no idea about Aaron’s involvement until several weeks later. That’s the type of guy Aaron is,” said Geyer, who described the 40-something family man as a “humble” and “gracious” military vet who had completed three tours.
“I don’t know if they don’t want to recognize Aaron because they think he expects something. He really doesn’t. Aaron doesn’t want any glory,” the doting mother-in-law added.
“I just was hopeful Aaron would get to meet President Trump one day.”
