(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Secret Service counter-sniper David King is the man who put the final bullet through the would-be Trump assassin during the July 13, 2024, deadly campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
However, King was not the first person to return fire at the alleged would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks. Rather, the cop who first shot at Crooks was Butler ESU Sgt. Aaron Zaliponi—doing so in the first six seconds, after Crooks had fired eight times. King’s shot came 15 seconds after Crooks opened fire—and 10 seconds after the shooting had stopped.
For months, questions have lingered about why the Secret Service took 15 seconds to return fire. And now, a recently released interview transcript with King raises further questions, because it contradicts earlier statements about when he saw Crooks.
Holy shit, I'm reading counter-sniper David King's Senate interview, and it's so much worse. He's shown the notes he took after the shooting, in which he says he saw the gunman "CRAWLING" into position w/ his rifle before opening fire. Then later a Senate investigator asked him… https://t.co/vcA0GNP1Ph pic.twitter.com/fWpngsT5Oj
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) August 2, 2025
During his Nov. 21, 2024, interview with the House Task Force, King told investigators that he didn’t see Crooks until after he had already stopped shooting.
“I was observing the rooftops, didn’t see anything … When the first shot rang out, I identified the location that Crooks was at, put my binos down, got my rifle. At the time that I was getting into my rifle and getting the lase of Crooks, that’s when I assumed that three rounds and then five went off,” King told House investigators.
Later, a House staffer asked King: “Had you seen Mr. Crooks at any time prior to viewing him through your rifle scope?”
“No,” King responded.
The staffer pressed further: “And as you are seeing Mr. Crooks through your rifle scope, did you see him fire any shots, or did you only see him after he was done firing shots?”
“I didn’t – yeah. It must have been after,” King said.
About three weeks later, King participated in another interview with the Senate Homeland Security Committee. That time, he was confronted with notes he took after the shooting. Those notes, which he wrote, say that he saw Crooks “crawling” into position before he started firing.
“I and my teammates positioned ourselves to observe that area that everyone was moving to. I noticed an individual, white male, white or gray shirt low crawling on the roof. I noticed an AR-style weapon on his hands. As I moved to observe through my rifle scope I heard weapon fire,” King’s notes said.
“I looked up to see my engagement scope, looked back through the scope, observed the individual shooting, and engaged. At that time, the shooter dropped out of my sight in the scope. I continued to observe the area, as there were reports of another individual on the water tower at four o’clock,” his notes said.
After presenting King’s own notes to him, the Senate investigator asked to clarify if he really saw Crooks “crawling” on the rooftop before firing. Despite what the notes said, King said he didn’t actually see Crooks.
“No. What I was trying to get at is when I saw him, he was on the peak of the roof, in his firing position, and as soon as he was identified the shots went out. I didn’t have the time to do any radio call or any other action except to get on my gun and take action on my own,” King told the Senate.
“It sounds like an eternity, but basically as soon as I saw him—I don’t know how long he was there. But once I identified, then the shots went out.”
King didn’t respond to a request for comment about his contradictory testimonies. In fact, he apparently deleted his LinkedIn account after this reporter messaged him there.
Secret Service sniper David King has some explaining to do. But when I asked him about this on LinkedIn, he deleted his account.
Where are you going, David?! https://t.co/vcA0GNPzEP pic.twitter.com/zFRCdYm4Qn— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) July 23, 2025
King has widely been hailed as a hero for his actions on July 13.
“His name is David,” Trump told the New York Post last month, adding that King “did a fantastic job.”
“He just, he went about his business. Less than just about four seconds, and that’s when it all stopped and he got him perfectly from a very long distance,” Trump said—giving incorrect information about the timing of King’s shot. “So we got a little bit lucky in that regard.”
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
