Butler, Pennsylvania: Former US president Donald Trump was the target of an apparent assassination attempt on Saturday at a Pennsylvania rally, days before he was to accept the Republican nomination for a third time.
A barrage of gunfire set off panic before Secret Service agents surrounded a bloodied Trump, who said he was shot in the ear, and hurried to his SUV as he pumped his fist in a show of defiance.
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.
Rallygoers screamed in panic. Shouts of “Get down!” rang through the crowd. At least one attendee was dead and two spectators were critically injured, authorities said. The Secret Service said it killed the suspected shooter – who it said attacked from an elevated position outside the rally venue, a farm show in Butler, Pennsylvania – and that Trump was safe.
The attack was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It came in a deeply polarised political atmosphere, just four months from the presidential elections and days before Trump is to be officially named the Republican nominee at his party’s convention – which his campaign said would proceed as planned.
“There’s no place in America for this type of violence,” US President Joe Biden, who is running against Trump as the presumptive Democratic nominee, said in remarks. “It’s sick. It’s sick.”
Two officials spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. They said the shooter was not an attendee at the rally and was killed by Secret Service agents.
The officials said the shooter was engaged by members of the Secret Service counter-assault team and killed. 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.
Police recovered an assault 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 imagery of the site, shows the shooter was able to get astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking. A video posted to social media and geolocated by the AP shows the body of a person wearing grey camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a building just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s rally was held.
The roof where the person lay was less than 150 metres from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 metres is the distance at which US Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle.
Rally disrupted by gunfire
Trump was showing off a chart of border crossing numbers when the apparent shots began. It took two minutes from the moment of the first shot for Trump to be placed in a waiting car.
As Trump was talking, a popping sound was heard. Trump said, “Oh,” and put his right hand up to his right ear as people in the stands behind him appeared to be shocked. Two more pops could be quickly heard and he crouched down.
Someone could be heard saying near the microphone at Trump’s lectern, “get down, get down, get down, get down!” as agents tackled the former president. They piled atop him 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. A woman is heard screaming 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.”
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.”
Trump got to his feet moments later and could be seen reaching with his right hand toward his face. There appeared to be blood on his face. He then pumped his fist in the air and appeared to mouth the word “fight” twice to his crowd of supporters, prompting loud cheers, then chants of “USA. USA. USA.”
The crowd cheered as he got back up and pumped his fist. His motorcade left the venue moments later.
Police began vacating the fairgrounds shortly after Trump left the stage in what local officers described as a crime scene.
Political violence returns to US
The perils of campaigning took on a new urgency after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in California in 1968, and again in 1972 when Arthur Bremer shot and seriously George Wallace, who was running as an independent on a campaign platform that has sometimes been compared to Trump’s. That led to increased protection of candidates, even as the threats persisted, notably against Jesse Jackson in 1988 and Barack Obama in 2008.
Presidents, particularly after the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963, have even greater layers of security. Trump is a rarity as both a former president and a current candidate.
US President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident, the White House said. He received an updated briefing from Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall.
After the shooting at Trump’s rally the Biden campaign was pausing all messaging to supporters and is working to pull down all of its television ads as quickly as possible, the campaign said.
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, posted a photo on X of Trump, his fist raised and his face bloody in front of an American flag, with the words: “He’ll never stop fighting to Save America.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson posted on X that he was praying for Trump.
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Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said in a statement on X that he had been briefed on the situation and Pennsylvania state police were on hand at the rally site.
“Violence targeted at any political party or political leader is absolutely unacceptable. It has no place in Pennsylvania or the United States,” he said.
