Assassination Attempt on President Trump

On July 13,2024, Donald Trump was holding a rally in Butler Park Pennsylvania when 10 gunshots rang out.

The following questions were asked:

• Who fired each shot?

• How long did it take law enforcement to respond?

• Were there other shooters?

Forensic analysis of the audio

According to my paper, “Who Fired When: Associating Multiple Audio Events from Uncalibrated Receivers”, gunshots fired from one location will have the same shot-to-shot timing across each of the different recordings. In other words, the time differences of arrival, or TDOA, for multiple shots fired from the same location, are the same in each recording, independent of recorder location.

When the timing between shots are the same, the muzzle blasts will line up, as shown for Gunshots S1-S8.  Gunshot S9 has a very different timing, meaning it was fired from a very different location.

Gunshots S1-S8 and S10 have shockwaves before the muzzle blast. The 9th gunshot does not, and it also has a number of echoes. This indicates that the shot was fired with buildings or large structures behind or off to the side of the recording locations. It makes sense that the 9th shot was fired close to a cluster of buildings. The 10th gunshot has different timing compared to shots S1-S8 and shot S9. This means that it was fired from a third location.

Comparing audio waveforms is a common and useful technique I employ in the cases I work on. Timing and echoes can help answer those essential questions: How many shooters were on the scene? Where was each shooter located? Who fired when? From a local police investigation to the United States Secret Service - when shots fired are recorded as audio, Beck Audio Forensics can help uncover the facts.