Trump injured after attempted murder at rally, but “fine” – shooter and one participant dead

BUTLER, PA. — BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump was assassinated Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania, just days before he was set 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 hurriedly led to his SUV while raising his fist in a show of 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 the shooter early Sunday as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. The agency said the investigation is still ongoing.

Secret Service agents shot and killed Crooks, who attacked from an elevated position outside the venue of an agricultural show in Butler, Pennsylvania, the agency said.

One visitor was killed and two spectators were seriously injured, authorities said. All of them were men.

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 showed the former president disembarking from his private jet flanked by U.S. Secret Service agents and heavily armed members of the agency’s counterattack team – an unusually visible show of force by his security detail.

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.”

Officials said the gunman was attacked 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 scene of the Trump rally, as well as satellite images of the site, shows that the shooter was able to get surprisingly 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 dressed 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 took place.

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 police 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.”

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.

“Everyone got on their knees or lay on their stomachs because we all knew that shots were being fired,” said Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, who sat to Trump’s right on the stage.