A Republican lawmaker is floating a bombshell new theory that Donald Trump shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was actually shot multiple times.
The revelation of the ‘second bullet’ theory came at the end of a congressional hearing Thursday aimed at investigating the deadly assassination attempt on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Louisiana Republican Rep. Clay Higgins asked Dr. Ariel Goldschmidt, the medical examiner of Allegheny County who conducted the autopsy on Thomas Matthew Crooks, if a second bullet could have struck Crooks.
‘You stated that there was only one bullet wound,’ Higgins told the doctor. ‘I accept that you had only one observable bullet wound.’
Then he asked a shocking question.
‘Could the injuries on Crooks’s shoulders have been caused by a combination of shot number nine and shot number ten?’ Higgins, a former law enforcement official, stunningly inquired.
The Republican specifically wanted to know if Crooks was hit by the ninth shot fired that day.
Crooks was killed by the tenth shot that rang out, a fact corroborated in congressional testimony.
But earlier in the hearing before the House Task Force assigned to investigate Trump’s myriad assassination attempts, a local law enforcement official testified that an Emergency Services Unit (ESU) sniper under his command shot at, and seemingly impacted, Crooks before he was fatally shot.
‘Could the injuries on Crooks’s shoulders have been caused by a combined impact of Butler County ESU shot number nine striking somewhere in the vicinity of the butt stock of of Crooks’s rifle and some some fragmenting from that impact?’ Higgins asked. ‘Is that possible?’
Goldschmidt responded: ‘No, I don’t believe so.’
Higgins shot back: ‘Does that mean it’s possible?’
Again the doctor said: ‘No, it’s not possible.’
The Louisianan again launched his theory at the medical examiner.
‘The FBI recovered no other bullets, that’s our understanding, no other projectiles, other than the partial projectile that you recovered from his shoulder.’
‘So you don’t know where shot number nine went do you doctor?’ Higgins asked.
The doctor responded in the affirmative.
Then Higgins proposed a really bizarre theory akin to the Silver Bullet conspiracy that cropped up in the wake of former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
‘You’re saying it’s not possible that shot number nine went all the way through Crooks, and you had no way of knowing that, because it was in the same wound that was further affected by shot number ten,’ Higgins said.
His theory appeared to be that Crooks was hit by two bullets and they both entered the same location on the shooters body.
One bullet went clean through Crooks, Higgins suggested, while the other was logged in his body and was later recovered by the medical examiner.
‘There was no evidence’ of that theory, Goldschmidt said.
Then Higgins seemed to find solace in the examiner’s answer.
‘There you go,’ the lawmaker responded to the doctor.
‘So that’s different than impossible,’ Higgins said cracking a smirk as though his ‘second bullet’ theory was vindicated.
The instance was a strange aside to a hourslong hearing that uncovered many new findings from witnesses from the Keystone State.
Law enforcement witnesses, many who were present at the rally during the shooting, detailed grisly aspects that unfolded during the messy day during a public hearing.
That includes the exact moment shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was taken out by a counter sniper, just seconds after he shot the former president.
The officials expressed remorse over the death and carnage that ensued that day, and the lapses in preparation and communication with the U.S. Secret Service that led up to it.
In addition, the long-awaited results of a series of tests conducted during Crooks’ autopsy are finally being released.
Opening the hearing, Chairman of the Trump Assassination Task Force Mike Kelly, R-Pa., said the Secret Service’s miscommunication led to confusion.
He likened it to the agency playing a game of telephone during the crisis.
Kelly told the witnesses he sought clarity on the tragic events from July 13, and let them begin.
Mr. Edward Lenz, Sergeant, Adams Township Police Department, Commander, Butler County Emergency Services Unit (ESU) opened up the hearing with his testimony.
He was in charge of a large 44 member Emergency Service Unit that closely assisted the Secret Service, more officers than the agency requested.
His wife, a medical professional, even aided some wounded that day, he added.
Lenz testified that at no point during the preparation was the local ESU asked to secure the AGR complex from where Thomas Matthew Crooks shot from.
Nor were they asked to put anyone on the roof.
They did, however, have a sniper on the barn close to Trump.
He described how that sniper shot at Crooks six seconds after the initial shots at the former president sounded off.
That ESU sniper under his command shot at Crooks from 110 yards, he testified.
‘When shots rang out he quickly was able to identify where the shots were coming from,’ Lenz told the panel.
‘He observed the shooter, shouldered his rifle, he acquired his target, and he fired one shot at the shooter which caused him to recoil and briefly fall out of site.’
That individual saw through his scope Crooks recoil after firing, indicating that the 20-year-old was hit by the round, or at least frightened.
Lenz testified that the ESU shooter was ‘very confident’ that the shot connected with the target.
But seconds after Crooks disappeared following the initial volley, the 20-year-old reappeared and was immediately shot once more, this time fatally by the Secret Service.
Lenz said there was ‘no guidance’ from the Secret Service on where he should station his ESU operators.
They were also not given information on rules for engagement from the agency, Lenz said.
And Crooks’s body showed signs that the Secret Service sniper’s bullet was the one that killed the shooter.
Dr. Ariel Goldschmidt, the medical examiner of Allegheny County, who conducted the autopsy on Thomas Matthew Crooks, confirmed Thursday he was killed by the sniper.
Goldschmidt confirmed that gunshot residue samples were taken.
He determined Crooks died as a result of a high-velocity gunshot wound to the head after conducting the autopsy the morning of July 14.
The entrance wound was just above Crooks’s lip, he testified.
Then on July 22 his body was released to the funeral home at the directive of the county coroner.
Goldschmidt also revealed that prior to his review of the body it was x-rayed and handled by the FBI.
The medical examiner also said that he does not believe that Crooks’ body was impacted by a ninth or tenth shot when pressed by Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., on whether there were additional wounds discovered during the autopsy.
Previously Higgins released an independent report indicating that the stock of Crooks’s gun could have been hit by gunfire and the resulting shrapnel from the strike could have injured the shooter.
But the doctor dispelled that suggestion during the hearing Thursday.
Higgins also had raised issues he encountered after he tried to view Crooks’ body on August 5 as part of his own personal inspection.
The former police captain said his request to view the body ’caused quite a stir and revealed a disturbing fact.’
It was at this point that he learned that the FBI had ‘released the body for cremation 10 days’ after the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
Higgins says ‘nobody knew’ that the body had been returned to the family, including the county coroner and local enforcement. He writes that the coroner still had ‘legal authority over the body’ when the FBI made this decision and accuses the agency of ‘obstruction’.
John D. Herold, Lieutenant, Pennsylvania State Police, the officer in charge for the State Police on July 13, also testified.
During the hearing he said there were 20 members of his team there to support the Secret Service, and his agency provided everything the agency requested.
He also said that his team was not tasked with securing the AGR building from where Crooks shot the former president.
The panel also played unseen footage of local enforcement officers attempting to confront Crooks before the shooting.
The video shows dash-cam footage from a police car showing an officer attempting to climb onto the roof.
Then the officer jumps down from the AGR roof building frantically.
He appears to injure his ankle and hobbles away with haste, seemingly afraid.
It was previously reported that an officer saw Crooks on the roof and tried to approach him before the 20-year-old opened fire, and the video confirmed the account.
