Pa. State Police Officer Honored for Actions During Attempted Trump Assassination: 'I Did My Job'
What to know
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Adams Township Police Sgt. Aaron Zaliponi was honored for firing a decisive shot during the July 2024 attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in Butler, a move credited with stopping the gunman.
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Though the FBI found no forensic proof his bullet struck the shooter, officials and investigators believe his “ninth shot” disrupted the attack and allowed a Secret Service sniper to end the threat.
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Zaliponi, a 14-year department veteran and former Army sergeant, has downplayed praise for his actions, saying he “just did [his] job” as his department continues to recover from the high-profile incident.
Source Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The toss of a coin may have heavily influenced what transpired on a brutally hot day in Butler Township last year.
As Donald Trump took the stage July 13, 2024, at the Butler Farm Show Grounds, set to deliver a campaign speech in front of one of the larger crowds he saw during his run up to the presidential election, Adams Township Sgt. Aaron Zaliponi was behind the bleachers outside of a red barn, helping to secure the site.
Then, gunshots rang out.
Trump, then the Republican candidate, was struck in the ear. A firefighter in the crowd was killed. Two others were wounded.
But from his position, officials believe, Sgt. Zaliponi fired a single shot that caused the gunman, perched on a rooftop about 150 yards from the stage with an AR-style 5.56-caliber rifle, to recoil and stop shooting. The gunman was shot and killed shortly thereafter.
Though the FBI has said there's "no forensic evidence indicating that that round either struck our subject or the subject's rifle," officials have said they believe Sgt. Zaliponi's shot — after the gunman had fired eight rounds toward the stage — struck the shooter's rifle before a Secret Service counter-sniper killed him.
"If he would not have reacted and did what he did, there would have been a lot more people injured, if not killed," Adams Township Police Chief Shawn Anglum told the Post-Gazette.
That Sgt. Zaliponi was even in that position stemmed from a coin toss several days before the rally, when he and another sergeant were determining who would work alongside the Secret Service that day — and get the opportunity to meet Trump — and who would be on the outskirts securing the scene.
Sgt. Zaliponi, 46, was honored Friday at the Sen. John Heinz Law Enforcement Awards Luncheon in Green Tree for what leaders described as his "extraordinary decisiveness" at the rally.
Award presenters said he "changed history."
But Sgt. Zaliponi, an exceedingly quiet and private towering presence of a man who served nearly 15 years in the U.S. Army and Pennsylvania National Guard, told the Post-Gazette he doesn't want the recognition.
"I did my job," he said.
Spotlight on local officers
The attempted assassination of Trump and Sgt. Zaliponi's gunshot thrust the Adams police department — 17 sworn officers in the growing southwestern Butler County town — and several other regional agencies into the national spotlight.
Three officers from Adams were part of the Butler Emergency Services Unit, which, along with units from Beaver and Washington counties, formed a 45-person tactical team that day.
Local agencies were caught up in something of a blame game as the Secret Service faced immense scrutiny over the security failure. A day after the shooting, then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said local officers were responsible for securing the building from which the gunman fired.
A few weeks later, then-Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. told reporters, "In no way should any state or local agency supporting us in Butler on July 13 be held responsible for a Secret Service failure."
As with any other incident, officers did their best to "move on," Adams Sgt. Edward Lenz said.
But what happened on that 90-plus-degree day was far different.
Before the officers left the farm show grounds that night, they made a promise to one another: No one would leave the force or let the events of the day touch their personal lives.
"This one event can't be something that changes the direction of your life," said Sgt. Lenz, who was at the rally that day and also testified in September 2024 before the congressional task force investigating the shooting. "You've still got to be around to do good things. Be there for your family."
Now, 15 months later, everyone has kept that promise.
But it's been challenging. The coverage of the shooting was inescapable. It was all-consuming.
Sgt. Lenz encouraged the department to avoid using social media and watching the news.
"It was nonstop," Sgt. Lenz said. "You couldn't even try to forget about it."
After the rally, some Adams officers found their moments of zen when they carved out time to be together.
They met weekly, gradually having larger gatherings with their families, including swimming at the Penn Valley Athletic Club.
"You're with people that went through the same thing, and they understand," Sgt. Lenz said. "You don't have to be on guard."
But for Sgt. Zaliponi, a 14-year veteran of the department, "nothing changed" for him after he fired the shot.
"I was more worried about my guys," he said. "They took it hard."
Sgt. Lenz said there was a moment not long after the rally that, mentally, took him right back to that day.
He was filling up his car when, nearby, the sound of nail gun echoed — someone was installing a roof.
"The 'pop-pop-pop' sounded very familiar," he said.
The 'ninth shot'
Sgt. Zaliponi saw the muzzle blast from the shooter's rifle as the suspect fired three rounds.
"Pop, pop, pop," he recalled.
There was a short pause before the gunman fired five more rounds.
Sgt. Zaliponi took fewer than six seconds to fire what's been called the "ninth shot."
He said the gunman then "slid down the roof" of the building from which he fired. When he came back into view, preparing for another shot, a Secret Service counter-sniper fired the fatal bullet.
Investigators and the task force that probed the attempted assassination of Trump — led by Mike Kelly, Butler's Republican congressman — did not officially confirm that Sgt. Zaliponi's shot destabilized the gunman. But many, including officials who testified on Capitol Hill during the task force's investigation, have credited his "ninth shot" with having allowed the Secret Service to fire the fatal shot and prevent more carnage.
Sgt. Lenz said he believes Sgt. Zaliponi's round struck the buttstock of the shooter's rifle, causing it to shatter and explode and delaying his next move.
"The outcome [would have been] significantly worse if Zaliponi had not engaged as quickly as he did," Sgt. Lenz said.
In the chaos that ensued after the shots were fired — and after he fired his own weapon — Sgt. Zaliponi said he heard people in the crowd call for help.
He quickly saw a man on the bleachers, later identified as Corey Comperatore, and immediately called for medics to try to save him. The Buffalo Township firefighter died that evening, the victim of a single gunshot wound, as he tried to shield his family from the gunfire.
David Dutch of Plum and James Copenhaver of Moon were critically wounded and later recovered.
Sgt. Zaliponi led his team to Butler Memorial Hospital, where they established a perimeter around the facility where Trump was treated for a wound to his ear.
Mr. Kelly said time restraints — his task force had five months to investigate before a new Congress was seated after Trump won the 2024 election — have left unanswered questions.
Photos of the shooter's body showed an abrasion on the right side of his face that appears consistent with the angle Sgt. Zaliponi shot from, Mr. Kelly said. The shot that killed him hit him in the upper lip on the left side of his face, according to a congressional task force report.
A spokesman for Mr. Kelly told the Post-Gazette that the congressman is working on "policy that would build upon the task force's recommendations to improve and strengthen the Secret Service," though no further details were provided about a timeline or when the legislation will be introduced.
"Local law enforcement was on top of everything they could be on top of that day," Mr. Kelly said. "That is why Sgt. Zaliponi is getting his award."
Keeping quiet
Along with Sgt. Zaliponi, officers from the City of Pittsburgh, Baldwin Borough, Cranberry, New Kensington, Penn Hills, Ross, South Park, Upper St. Clair and Whitehall were honored for other acts of "heroism and dedication above and beyond the call of duty" during Friday's regional awards ceremony.
Sgt. Zaliponi's mother-in-law, Butler County Commissioner Kim Geyer, presented him with an award for his heroism: a miniature police officer sculpted by the same woman who created the statues of Pirates legends Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski outside PNC Park.
Staying true to his penchant for being quiet and private, she said, Sgt. Zaliponi didn't tell the family on the night of the rally shooting that his shot may have disrupted the gunman.
Ms. Geyer said the family didn't find out until weeks later.
"We were hugging him and thanking him and telling him how proud we were of him," she told the crowd.
Ms. Geyer, who was sitting just behind Trump's stage at the rally that day, described her son-in-law as a man of few words.
"He's not going to share this prideful moment with all of you," she told the crowd Friday. He's going to say he was just doing his job.
She was right.
Minutes after the awards ceremony, Sgt. Zaliponi reflected on the recognition.
"I still don't need it," he said.
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