Pennsylvania sheriff defends local officers who confronted Trump rally shooter

Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe defended officers from questions over a security lapse that led to an assassination attempt on former President Trump.

The sheriff of Butler County, Pennsylvania, has defended the local police officers who confronted Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Trump from a rooftop at a political rally on Saturday, as heroes.

Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told the New York Post that the officers who interrupted Crooks just before he fired multiple shots toward the former president likely provided enough of a distraction to save Trump’s life.

"If I’m interrupted, and I move my gun, you are going to have to reassess that whole situation at this point, so yes, you can make a case that those two officers saved the president’s life," Slupe said.

Both federal and local law enforcement have been criticized over the security lapse following the shooting, with some sparring between the U.S. Secret Service and the Fraternal Order of Police.

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As the crowd outside Trump’s rally pointed and screamed that there was a suspicious individual with a gun on the roof of a building, local police arrived to search the perimeter, though were unable to spot the person on the roof from their ground-level vantage point, Butler Township Manager Thomas Knights previously told Fox News Digital.

With no easy way to climb onto the roof, Knights said one officer boosted another officer high enough to grab hold of the edge of the building’s roof, which was 12 feet above the ground. As the officer lifted himself up, Knights said he "did observe an individual on the roof," who "was identified as having a weapon" and "did point that firearm at our officer."

As Crooks pointed the firearm at the officer, the officer ducked his head, losing his grip on the roof’s edge and falling about eight feet to the ground, spraining his ankle, the township manager said.

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Slupe told the New York Post that "timing is everything," and the interruption to the shooter bought Trump the seconds he needed to miraculously turn his head so that the bullet struck only his ear. 

"Can you imagine 10 seconds before that?" the sheriff asked. "That the president was looking straight ahead and where that bullet could have potentially landed."

Slupe, however, agreed that there was an overall security failure at the event.

"You’d have to be stupid not to admit there was a failure," he told the Post, adding that local police did the job that was asked of them.

Fox News’ Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.