BUTLER, Pennsylvania. In the wake of an apparent attempt to kill him, former President Donald Trump on Sunday called for unity and resilience as shocked leaders across the political divide recoiled from the shooting that left him injured but “fine” and the shooter and a rally participant died.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said the top of his right ear was pierced during the shooting. His aides said he was “in great spirits” and doing well.
“I knew immediately something was wrong as I heard a buzzing sound, gunshots and immediately felt the bullet tearing through the skin,” he wrote on his social media site. “There was a lot of bleeding.”
In a subsequent post on Sunday, Trump said that “it was only God who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”
“At this time, it is more important than ever that we stand together and show our true character as Americans by remaining strong and determined and not allowing evil to win,” his post read.
The FBI on Sunday morning identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as it pressed its investigation.
Secret Service agents fatally shot Crooks. The gunman attacked from an elevated position outside the rally site at an agricultural fair in Butler, the agency said.
One participant died and two spectators were seriously injured, authorities said. All were identified as men.
Investigators believe the gun was purchased by Crooks’ father at least six months ago, two law enforcement officials said. Federal agents were still working to understand when and how his son obtained the gun and gather additional information about Crooks as they tried to identify a motive, authorities said.
The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The attack was the most serious attempt to kill a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It drew new attention to concerns about political violence in a deeply polarized country less than four months before the presidential election. And it could change the tenor and security posture at the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee.
Organizers said the convention would proceed as planned.
Trump flew to New Jersey after visiting a local Pennsylvania hospital, landing shortly after midnight at Newark Liberty International Airport. A video posted by an aide showed the former president leaving 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 protection team.
President Joe Biden, who is running against Trump, was briefed on the attack and spoke with Trump several hours after the shooting, the White House said.
“There is no place in America for this type of violence,” the president said. “It’s sick. It’s sick.”
Biden planned to return to Washington early, cutting 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 continued attacks on Trump as a threat to democracy had created a toxic environment. They pointed in particular to a comment Biden made to donors on July 8, saying “it’s time to put Trump on target.”
Authorities said members of the Secret Service counterattack team killed the shooter. The heavily armed tactical team travels far and wide with the president and major party candidates and is intended to confront any active threats, while other agents focus on safeguarding and evacuating the person at the center of the protection.
An AP analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos from the site of Trump’s rally, as well as satellite images of the site, shows that the gunman managed to get surprisingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking.
A video posted on social media and geotagged by the AP shows the body of a person wearing gray camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a building at AGR International, a factory north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s rally was held.
The rooftop the person was standing on was less than 150 meters (164 yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent sniper could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is a distance at which US Army recruits must achieve a human-scale silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle. The AR-15, as the shooter at the Trump rally did, is the civilian semi-automatic version of the military M-16.
Asked at the press conference whether authorities did not know the shooter was on the roof until he began shooting, Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, responded that “that’s our assessment at this point.”
“It’s surprising” that the shooter was able to open fire on stage before the Secret Service killed him, he added.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees the Secret Service, said officials were engaged with the Biden and Trump campaigns and “taking every possible step to ensure their safety.”
Trump was displaying a chart of border crossing numbers when the shooting began after 6:10 p.m.
When the first crack sounded, Trump said, “Oh,” put his hand to his right ear and looked at it, before quickly crouching on the floor behind the lectern. The people in the stands behind him also crouched down as screams echoed through the crowd.
Someone could be heard near the microphone saying, “Get down, get down, get down, get down!” as agents rushed the stage. They huddled on top of the former president to protect him with their bodies, as per their training protocol, while other agents took up positions on stage to look 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 “sniper down” several times, before someone asked “are we ready to move?” and “are we clear?” Then someone ordered: “Let’s go.”
Trump could be heard in the video saying at least twice, “Let me get my shoes, let me get my shoes,” with another voice saying, “I’m with you, sir.”
Trump stood up moments later and could be seen extending his right hand toward his face, which was stained with blood. He then raised his fist in the air and appeared to utter the word “Fight” twice to his crowd of supporters, eliciting applause and chants of “USA. USA. USA.”
His motorcade left the scene moments later. The video showed Trump turning to the crowd and raising his fist shortly before being placed in a vehicle.
“Everybody knelt or got on their stomachs, because we all knew, everybody realized the fact that this was a shooting,” said Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, who was sitting to Trump’s right on stage.
When he saw Trump raise his fist, McCormick said, he looked over his shoulder and realized someone had been hit while sitting in the bleachers behind the stage.
Eventually, first responders were able to get the injured person out of a large crowd so he could get medical care, McCormick said.
Reporters covering the rally heard five or six gunshots and many ducked for cover, hiding under tables. After the first two or three booms, people in the crowd seemed scared but not panicked. An AP reporter at the scene reported that the noise initially sounded like fireworks or perhaps a car backfiring.
When it became clear that the situation had been contained and that Trump would not return to speak, participants began to leave the venue. A man in an electric wheelchair became stranded in the field when his chair’s battery ran out. Others tried to help him move.
Police soon told the remaining people to leave the scene and Secret Service agents told reporters to “leave now.” This is a live crime scene.
Two firefighters from nearby Steubenville, Ohio, who were at the rally, told the AP they helped people who appeared injured and heard bullets hitting the broadcast speakers.
“The bullets hit the stands, one hit the speaker tower and then chaos began,” Chris Takach said. “We fell to the ground and then the police converged on the stands.”
“The first thing I heard was some cracking,” Dave Sullivan said.
Sullivan said he saw one of the speakers get hit and bullets clang and “we fell to the deck.”
He said that once Secret Service and other officials converged on Trump, 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,” said Sullivan, who recalled that fluid was sprayed from a mechanical line onto the stage before a speaker tower began to fall.
“Then we heard another shot that, you could hear it, you knew there was something — it was bullets. It wasn’t fireworks.”
The dangers of campaigning took on new urgency after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in California in 1968, and again in 1972, when Arthur Bremer shot and seriously injured George Wallace, who was running as an independent on a campaign platform that has sometimes been compared to of Trump. This led to greater protection of candidates, even with threats persisting, namely against Jesse Jackson in 1988 and Barack Obama in 2008.
Presidents, especially after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, have even greater layers of security, and Trump is a rarity both as a former president and a current candidate.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, three men on Trump’s list for vice president, quickly sent out statements expressing concern for the former president, with Rubio sharing an image taken as Trump was escorted off the stage with his fist in the air and a stain of blood on his face along with the words “God protected President Trump.”
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Colvin, Balsamo and Price reported from New York. Long reported from Washington. Tucker reported from Westport, Connecticut. Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Will Weissert in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, contributed to this report.
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