Former US president Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, days before he was to accept the Republican nomination for a third time.
A barrage of gunfire set off panic, and a bloodied Mr Trump, who said he was shot in the ear, was surrounded by Secret Service agents and rushed to his SUV as he pumped his fist in a show of defiance.
Mr Trump’s campaign said the presumptive Republican nominee was doing “fine” after the shooting, which he said pierced the upper part of his right ear.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place,” he wrote on his social media site, Truth Social.
© APEarly on Sunday, the FBI identified the gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. The agency said the investigation remains active and ongoing.
Secret Service agents fatally shot Crooks, who attacked from an elevated position outside the rally venue at a farm show in Butler, Pennsylvania, the agency said.
One attendee was killed and two spectators were critically injured, authorities said. All were identified as men.
The attack was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
It drew new attention to concerns about political violence in a deeply polarised US less than four months before the presidential election. And it could alter the tenor and security posture at the Republican National Convention, which will begin in Milwaukee on Monday.
Organisers said the convention will proceed as planned.
Mr Trump flew to New Jersey after visiting a local Pennsylvania hospital, landing at Newark Liberty International Airport shortly after midnight.
Video posted by an aide showed the former president leaving his private jet flanked by Secret Service agents and heavily armed members of the agency’s counter-assault team, an unusually visible show of force by his protective detail.
President Joe Biden, who is running against Mr Trump, was briefed on the incident and spoke to Mr Trump several hours after the shooting, the White House said.
“There’s no place in America for this type of violence,” the president said in public remarks. “It’s sick. It’s sick.”
Mr Biden planned to return to Washington early, cutting short a weekend at his beach home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Many Republicans quickly blamed the violence on Mr Biden and his allies, arguing that sustained attacks on Mr Trump as a threat to democracy have created a toxic environment. They pointed in particular to a comment Mr Biden made to donors on July 8, saying “it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye”.
Officials said the gunman was tackled by members of the US Secret Service counter-assault team. The heavily armed tactical team travels everywhere with the president and major party nominees and is meant to confront any active threats while other agents focus on safeguarding and evacuating the person at the centre of protection.
Law enforcement recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene.
An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos from the scene of the Trump rally, as well as satellite imagery of the site, shows the gunman was able to get astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking.
A video posted to social media and geolocated by AP shows a person wearing grey camouflage clothing lying motionless on the roof of a building at AGR International Inc, a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Mr Trump’s rally was being held.
The roof where the person lay was less than 150m from where Mr Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150m is the distance at which US Army recruits must hit a human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle. The AR-15, like the gunman at the Trump rally had, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M-16.
Asked at a press conference whether law enforcement did not know the gunman was on the roof until he began firing, Kevin Rojek, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, responded that “that is our assessment at this time”.
“It is surprising” that the gunman was able to open fire on the stage before the Secret Service killed him, he added.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees the Secret Service, said officials are engaged with the Biden and Trump campaigns and “taking every possible measure to ensure their safety and security”.
Mr Trump had been showing off a chart of border crossing numbers when the gunfire began after 6.10pm local time.
As the first shot rang out, Mr Trump said “Oh” and raised his hand to his right ear and looked at it, before quickly crouching behind his lectern. The people in the stands behind him also ducked down as screams rang through the crowd.
Someone could be heard near the microphone saying “Get down, get down, get down, get down!” as agents rushed to the stage. They piled on top of the former president to shield him with their bodies, as is their training protocol, as other agents took up positions on stage to search for the threat.
Screams were heard in the crowd of several thousand people. One woman screamed louder than the rest. Afterwards, voices were heard saying “Shooter’s down” several times, before someone asked “Are we good to move?” and “Are we clear?” Then someone ordered “Let’s move.”
Mr Trump could be heard on the video saying at least twice “Let me get my shoes, let me get my shoes”, with another voice heard saying “I’ve got you sir.”
Mr Trump got to his feet moments later and could be seen putting his right hand to his face, which was smeared with blood. He then pumped his fist in the air and appeared to mouth the word “Fight” twice towards his crowd of supporters, prompting loud cheers and then chants of “USA. USA. USA.”
The crowd cheered as he got back up and pumped his fist.
Donald Trump was whisked off the stage at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, after apparent gunshots rang through the crowd.
In a statement, Trump said he is “fine” and is being checked at a medical facility. pic.twitter.com/jAyWz53Aqi
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 13, 2024
His motorcade left the venue moments later. Video showed him turning back to the crowd and raising a fist before he was put into a vehicle.
Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for the US Senate in Pennsylvania, who was sitting to Mr Trump’s right on stage, said: “Everybody went to their knees or their prone position, because we all knew… everyone becoming aware of the fact this was gunfire.”
As he saw Mr Trump raise his fist, Mr McCormick said, he looked over his shoulder and noticed someone had been hit while sitting on benches behind the stage.
Eventually, first responders were able to carry the injured person out of the large crowd so he could get medical care, Mr McCormick added.
Reporters covering the rally heard five or six shots ring out and many ducked for cover, hiding under tables. After the first two or three bangs, people in the crowd looked startled, but not panicked. An AP reporter at the scene reported the noise sounded like firecrackers at first or perhaps a car backfiring.
When it was clear the situation had been contained and Mr Trump would not return to speak, attendees started filing out of the venue. One man in an electric wheelchair got stuck on the field when his chair’s battery died. Others tried to help him move.
Police soon told the remaining people to leave the venue and Secret Service agents told reporters to get “out now. This is a live crime scene.”
Two firefighters from nearby Steubenville, Ohio, who were at the rally told AP that they helped people who appeared injured and heard bullets hitting broadcast speakers.
“The bullets rattled around the grandstand, one hit the speaker tower and then chaos broke. We hit the ground and then the police converged into the grandstands, said Chris Takach.
“The first thing I heard is a couple of cracks,” Dave Sullivan said.
Mr Sullivan said he saw one of the speakers get hit and bullets rattling and “we hit the deck”.
He said once Secret Service and other authorities converged on Mr Trump, he and Mr Takach helped two people who may have been shot in the grandstand and cleared a path to get them out of the way.
“Just a sad day for America,” he said.
“After we heard the shots got fired, then the hydraulic line was spraying all around – you could see the hydraulic fluid coming out of it. And then the speaker tower started to fall down.
“Then we heard another shot that… you could hear… you knew something was… it was bullets. It wasn’t firecrackers.”
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