Former President Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt on Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania, days before he was due to accept the Republican nomination for a third time. A hail of bullets sparked panic, and a bloodied Trump, who said he had been shot in the ear, was surrounded by Secret Service and rushed to his SUV while clenching his fist in defiance.
Trump’s campaign team said the likely Republican nominee was “doing well” after the shooting, in which his right ear was pierced.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong because I heard a hissing sound, gunshots and immediately felt the bullet pierce the skin. There was severe bleeding,” he wrote on his social media page.
The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the man involved in the attack early Sunday. The agency said the investigation is ongoing.
One participant was killed and two bystanders were seriously injured, authorities said. All were identified as men. The Secret Service said it killed the suspected gunman – who is believed to have attacked from an elevated position outside the rally’s venue, an agricultural fair in Butler, Pennsylvania – and said Trump was safe.
The FBI said during a press conference late Saturday that it was not ready to release the identity of the shooter and did not yet have a motive for the attempted murder.
The attack was the most serious assassination attempt on a president or presidential candidate since the assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981. It drew renewed attention to concerns about political violence in a deeply polarized America less than four months before the presidential election. And it could change the tone and security situation at the Republican National Convention, which begins in Milwaukee on Monday.
The organizers said the congress would take place as planned.
Trump flew to New Jersey after visiting a local hospital in Pennsylvania, landing at Newark Liberty International Airport shortly after midnight. A video posted by one of his aides shows the former president disembarking from his private jet flanked by U.S. Secret Service agents and heavily armed members of the agency’s counterintelligence team – an unusually visible show of force by his security forces.
President Joe Biden, who is running against Trump, was briefed on the incident and spoke with Trump several hours after the shooting, the White House said.
“There is no place for this kind of violence in America,” the president said in a public address. “This is sick. This is sick.”
Biden planned to return to Washington early, so he cut short a weekend at his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Many Republicans were quick to blame Biden and his allies for the violence, arguing that the ongoing attacks on Trump as a threat to democracy had created a toxic climate. They pointed in particular to a comment Biden made to donors on July 8 in which he said, “It’s time to target Trump.”
In the coming days, much of the focus will be on the shooter and the security lapses. The shooter was not a participant in the rally and was killed by U.S. Secret Service agents, according to two officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Officials said the gunman was tackled by members of the U.S. Secret Service’s counterattack team. The heavily armed tactical team accompanies the president and major party candidates wherever they go and is designed to counter any active threat while other agents focus on security and evacuation of the person at the center of protection.
Law enforcement recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene, according to a third person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
An AP analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos from the Trump rally site, as well as satellite imagery of the location, shows the shooter came astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking. A video posted on social media and geolocated by AP shows the body of a person in gray camouflage clothing lying motionless on the roof of a building belonging to AGR International Inc., a manufacturing facility north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s rally was held.
The roof the person was lying on was less than 150 meters (164 yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a good shooter could easily hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is the distance from which U.S. Army recruits must hit a human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle. The AR-15, like the one the shooter at the Trump rally had, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M-16.
When asked if law enforcement did not know the shooter was on the roof until he started shooting, Kevin Rojek, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, replied, “That is our assessment at this time.”
“It is surprising” that the gunman was able to open fire on the stage before intelligence officials killed him, he added.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees the Secret Service, said the officials are involved in the Biden and Trump campaigns and will “take every possible measure to ensure their safety.”
A rally was disrupted by gunfire
Trump showed a table with numbers on border crossings when the shooting started after 6:10 p.m.
When the first bang sounded, Trump said, “Oh,” raised his hand to his right ear and looked at it before quickly ducking to the floor behind his lectern. The people in the stands behind him also ducked as screams echoed through the crowd.
Someone near the microphone could be heard shouting, “Down, down, down, down!” as the agents stormed the stage, piling on top of the former president to shield him with their bodies, as is their training protocol, while other agents took up positions on the stage to search for the threat.
Screams could be heard in the crowd of several thousand people. One woman screamed louder than the rest. Voices were then heard saying “The shooter is down” several times before someone asked, “Can we go?” and “Are we free?” Then someone ordered, “Let’s go.”
In the video, Trump can be heard saying at least twice, “Let me get my shoes, let me get my shoes,” and another voice saying, “I got you, sir.”
Trump stood up a moment later and could be seen reaching for his bloodied face with his right hand. He then raised his fist in the air and mouthed the word “fight” twice from his supporters, prompting loud cheers and then chants of “USA. USA. USA.”
The crowd cheered as he stood up again and clenched his fist.
His motorcade left the venue moments later. A video shows Trump turning to the crowd and raising a fist just before he is placed into a vehicle.
Witnesses heard several shots and took cover
“Everyone got on their knees or on their stomachs because we all knew that it was gunshots,” said Dave McCormickthe Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, who sat to Trump’s right on the stage.
When he saw Trump raise his fist, McCormick said, he looked over his shoulder and noticed someone had been punched while he was sitting in the stands behind the stage.
Eventually, rescue workers managed to carry the injured man out of the large crowd so he could receive medical attention, McCormick said.
Reporters covering the rally heard five or six shots fired, and many took cover, hiding under tables. After the first two or three bangs, people in the crowd seemed startled but not panicked. An AP reporter on the scene said the noise initially sounded like fireworks or perhaps a car backfiring.
When it was clear that the situation was under control and Trump would no longer speak, attendees began to leave the venue. One man in an electric wheelchair became stuck on the field when his wheelchair’s battery died. Others tried to help him move.
Police soon ordered those remaining to leave the venue, and Secret Service agents told reporters to “get out immediately. This is a living crime scene.”
Two firefighters from nearby Steubenville, Ohio, who were at the rally told AP they helped people who appeared to be injured and heard bullets hitting the radio broadcast speakers.
“Bullets were flying around the stands, one hit the speaker tower and then chaos broke out. We fell to the ground and then the police poured into the stands,” said Chris Takach.
“The first thing I heard was some cracking noises,” said Dave Sullivan.
Sullivan said he saw one of the speakers hit and bullets raining down, and “we went down.”
He said that when the Secret Service and other authorities arrived at Trump’s home, he and Takach helped two people who may have been shot in the stands and cleared a path to get them out of the way.
“Just a sad day for America,” Sullivan said.
“After we heard the shots, the hydraulic line was spraying everywhere, you could see the hydraulic fluid coming out. And then the speaker tower started to collapse,” Sullivan said. “Then we heard another shot, and you could hear there was something there, it was bullets. It wasn’t fireworks.”
Political violence shakes America again
The dangers of the election campaign took on a new significance after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in California in 1968 and in 1972, when Arthur Bremer shot and seriously wounded George Wallace. Wallace ran as an independent and had a platform that was sometimes compared to Trump’s. This led to increased protection of candidates, even as threats continued, particularly against Jesse Jackson in 1988 and Barack Obama in 2008.
Presidents, especially after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, enjoy even greater security. Trump is a rarity both as a former president and as a current candidate.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Senator JD Vance, the three men on Trump’s shortlist for vice president, all immediately sent out statements expressing concern for the former president. Rubio shared an image taken as Trump was escorted off the stage with his fist raised and a streak of blood on his face, along with the words “God protected President Trump.”
Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro said in a statement on X he said he had been informed of the situation and that Pennsylvania State Police were on site at the rally.
“Violence against political parties or political leaders is absolutely unacceptable. It has no place in Pennsylvania or the United States,” he said.