Former US President Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, just days before he was due to accept the Republican Party’s third nomination.
The gunfight sparked panic as a bloodied Trump, who said he had been shot in the ear, ran to his SUV, fists raised in defiance, surrounded by Secret Service agents.
Trump’s campaign said the Republican front-runner was in “good spirits” after the shooting, which left him stabbed above his right ear.
“I knew straight away something was wrong as I heard a whoosh, a gunshot and felt the bullet penetrate my skin. I was losing a lot of blood,” he wrote on his social media site Truth Social.
According to a Secret Service statement, Crooks was shot and killed by a Secret Service agent after he attacked him from an elevated position outside an agricultural show in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Authorities said one participant was killed and two spectators were seriously injured, all identified as men.
The attack was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since the 1981 shooting of Ronald Reagan.
The attack has drawn new attention to concerns about political violence in a deeply divided United States with less than four months to go until the presidential election, and could also change the tone and security posture at the Republican National Convention, which begins in Milwaukee on Monday.
Organizers said the tournament would go ahead as scheduled.
Trump visited a local hospital in Pennsylvania before flying to New Jersey, arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport just after midnight.
Video posted by an aide showed the former president disembarking from a private jet surrounded by Secret Service agents and heavily armed members of the agency’s counter-assault team, in an unusual show of force by his security detail.
President Joe Biden condemned the shooting, calling it “horrible.” (Manuel Balce Senator/Associated Press)
“There is no room for this kind of violence in America,” the president said publicly. “This is sick. This is sick.”
Biden was due to cut short a weekend spent at his seaside home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and return to Washington early.
Many Republicans were quick to blame Biden and his allies for the violence, arguing that Trump’s continued attacks on democracy had created a toxic environment. They pointed in particular to comments Biden made to donors on July 8, when he said, “It’s time to target Trump.”
Authorities said the gunman was subdued by members of the Secret Service’s counter-assault team, the heavily armed tactical team that travels with the president and major party candidates everywhere and is tasked with dealing with any threats while other agents focus on protecting and evacuating key individuals.
Police recovered an AR-type rifle at the scene.
An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos from the scene of Trump’s rally, as well as satellite imagery of the location, showed that the gunman was able to get surprisingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking.
Videos located by The Associated Press and posted to social media showed a person in gray camouflage clothing lying motionless on the roof of the AGR International building, a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show where Trump’s rally was being held.
The rooftop where the man was lying was less than 150 meters from where Trump was speaking, a distance that would allow a skilled marksman to hit a human-sized target, or the distance a U.S. Army recruit would have to shoot a human-sized humanoid with an M-16 rifle. The AR-15 used by the Trump rally shooter is a semi-automatic civilian version of the military M-16.
FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek, left, and Pennsylvania State Police Officers George Givens and Christopher Parris answer questions during a press conference following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump (Sue Oglocki/The Associated Press)
He added that it was “amazing” that the gunman was able to fire a shot on stage before the Secret Service shot him dead.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the Secret Service, said officials were working with both the Biden and Trump campaigns and “taking every possible step to ensure their safety and security.”
When the shooting began just after 6:10pm local time, Trump was showing off a graph showing the number of people crossing the border.
As the first shot rang out, Trump said “Oh,” put his hand to his right ear and looked, then quickly crouched behind the podium, as screams rang out from the crowd and people in the stands behind him crouched as well.
As agents ran onto the stage, someone could be heard near a microphone saying, “Down, down, down, down, down!” As they were trained, agents jumped over the former president, shielding him with their bodies, while other agents took up positions on the stage to search for threats.
Screams could be heard from the crowd of several thousand, one woman shouting louder than the others, followed by multiple voices saying “The shooter is down,” followed by someone asking “Can we move?” and “Is it safe?”, followed by someone giving the order: “Let’s move.”
In the video, Trump can be heard saying at least twice, “Let me get my shoes, let me get my shoes,” and another voice can be heard saying, “It’s okay, sir.”
Trump rose to his feet minutes later and was seen holding his right hand over his bloodied face before pumping his fist in the air and appearing to say the word “fight” twice to his supporters, prompting loud cheers and chants of “USA, USA, USA.”
He stood and pumped his fist, and the crowd cheered.
Former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he is helped off the stage by U.S. Secret Service agents (Jean J. Puskar/Associated Press)
“Everybody was on their knees, everybody was on their stomach, because everybody knew it was a shooting … everybody knew it,” said Dave McCormick, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, who sat to Trump’s right on stage.
McCormick said he saw Trump raise his fist, then turned around and realized someone sitting on a bench behind the stage was being punched.
McCormick added that emergency personnel were eventually able to remove the injured from the large crowd and get them medical treatment.
Reporters covering the rally heard five or six gunshots ring out, causing many to duck and take cover under tables. After the first few explosions, the crowd seemed startled but not panicked. An Associated Press reporter at the scene reported that it initially sounded like firecrackers or a car backfiring.
As the situation settled and it became clear that Trump would not be returning to speak, attendees began to file out of the venue. One man in a motorized wheelchair became trapped on the field after his wheelchair’s battery died, and others tried to help him.
Police quickly instructed the remaining crowd to leave the venue, and Secret Service agents told reporters, “Leave now. This is a crime scene.”
Former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)
“Bullets were ringing out around the bleachers, one hit the speaker tower and then chaos ensued. We fell to the ground and then police converged on the bleachers,” Chris Takacs said.
“The first thing I heard was a couple of cracks,” Dave Sullivan said.
Sullivan said one of the speakers was shot, shots rang out and “we fell to the ground.”
He said that as Secret Service and other authorities converged on Trump, he and Takacs helped two people who may have been shot in the stands and cleared a path for them to escape.
“It’s a sad day for America,” he said.
“We heard gunshots and then we saw hydraulic lines splashing all over the place. We could see hydraulic fluid coming out of it. And then the speaker tower started to fall.”
“Then I heard another gunshot. I heard something. It was a shot. It wasn’t a firecracker.”
