Former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is surrounded by U. S. Secret Service agents at a cross rally on Saturday, July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Evan Vucci/AP
BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump was the target of an alleged assassination attempt Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania, days before accepting the Republican nomination for a third time. A flurry of gunfire sparked panic and the bloodied Trump, who said he had been shot in the ear, was surrounded by the Secret Service and ran to his truck while brandishing his fist in defiance.
Trump’s crusader said the presumptive Republican nominee was “fine” after the shooting, which it said pierced the top of his right ear.
“Without delay I knew something was wrong, I heard a whistle, gunshots and without delay I felt the bullet tearing the skin. There was a lot of bleeding,” he wrote on his social network.
In the post on his social network, Trump also thanked “everyone for your attention and prayers yesterday, because only God prevented the unthinkable from happening. “
“We will NOT be afraid, but we will be resilient in our religion and defiant in the face of evil,” he said.
Trump also said, “Our love is with the other sick and their families,” and said he prayed “for the recovery of those who were injured and holds in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was killed in such a horrific way. “”
“Right now, it is more vital than ever that we come together and show our true character as Americans, staying strong and determined and not allowing evil to win,” he added.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro says the man who was killed at a rally for former President Donald Trump was a former domain fire chief. Shapiro said Sunday that Comperatore “died a hero” and lunged at his family to protect them, using his body as a shield to protect his spouse and daughter from bullets.
Randy Reamer, president of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company, called Comperatore a “brave man” and a “true fire department brother. ”
A GoFundMe presented to Comperatore’s family had already surpassed more than $180,000 in donations as of Sunday.
The FBI early Sunday identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as being involved in the shooting, which the firm said it “called an attempted murder. “The firm said the investigation remains active and ongoing.
Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that bomb-making materials were discovered inside the vehicle of the man suspected in the Trump rally shooting. Bomb-making fabrics were also discovered in Crook’s home. Both officials had the right to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
President Joe Biden said he ordered a full review of security at the rally.
Crooks’ relatives did not respond promptly to messages from The Associated Press. His father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN on Saturday night that he was looking to find out “what’s going on” but would only talk about his son after speaking with authorities.
Investigators purchased the gun through Crooks’ father at least six months ago, two law enforcement officials said. Federal agents were still racing to find out when and how the gun was given to his son and gather more data on Crooks, officials said.
A traffic blockade had been set up Sunday near Crooks’ home, in an enclave of modest brick homes nestled in the hills of the working-class city of Pittsburgh.
Crooks’ political leanings were not immediately clear. Records show Crooks registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he donated $15 to a progressive political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021, the day Biden was sworn in. .
Pennsylvania public court records show no prior criminal cases against Crooks, who graduated from the top school two years ago.
The FBI revealed his identity early Sunday, hours after the shooting. Authorities told reporters that Crooks was not carrying identification, so DNA and other strategies were used to verify his identity.
Two spectators were seriously injured, the government said. Both were known as men. The Secret Service said it killed the suspected shooter, who they said attacked from an elevated position outside the rally site, an agricultural exhibit in Butler, Pennsylvania, and said Trump was safe.
The FBI said at a news conference Saturday night that it still knew the motive for the assassination attempt.
An AP investigation of more than a dozen videos and images of Trump’s rally scene, as well as satellite photographs of the venue, shows the gunman managed to get bizarrely close to the spot where the former president was speaking. Social media and geotagging via the AP show a user dressed in gray camouflage framed motionless on the roof of an AGR International Inc. building, a production plant just north of the Butler Farm Show site where Trump’s rally took place.
The roof where the person lay was less than 150 meters (164 yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is a distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle. The AR-15, like the shooter at the Trump rally had, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M-16.
When asked at the news conference if law enforcement didn’t know the shooter was on the roof until he started shooting, Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh box office, responded, “That’s our evaluation at this time. “
“It’s surprising” that the shooter was able to open fire at level before the secret killed him, he added.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose branch oversees the Secret Service, said officials were committed to the Biden and Trump campaigns and were “taking any and all steps imaginable to ensure their safety and security. “
It was the most serious assassination attempt against a president or presidential candidate since the assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981. It drew attention to considerations of political violence in a deeply polarized United States, less than four months before the election. presidential. it may simply replace the content and security posture of the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee.
Organizers said the conference will go ahead as planned.
Trump flew to New Jersey after visiting a local hospital in Pennsylvania and landed shortly after at Newark Liberty International Airport. A video released through an aide showed the former president disembarking from his personal plane flanked by Trump, U. S. Secret Service agents and heavily armed members of the agency’s Counter Strike Team, an unusually visual display of force by his team. of coverage.
President Biden, who opposes Trump, reported on the incident and spoke with Trump several hours after the shooting, the White House said.
“There is no position in the United States for this violence,” the president said in a public speech. “It’s crazy. It’s crazy. “
Biden planned to return to Washington early, cutting short a weekend at his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Many Republicans blamed Biden and his allies for the violence, arguing that sustained attacks on Trump, seen as a risk to democracy, created a poisonous environment. In particular, they highlighted a comment Biden made to donors on July 8, saying that “it’s time to put Trump on target. ”
United States Secret Service agents react as former Republican President Donald Trump is surrounded by agents at a military rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Evan Vucci/AP
Trump appeared on a board with the numbers of border crossings when the shooting began after 6:10 p. m.
When the first pop played, Trump said “Oh,” put his hand to his right ear and looked at it, before temporarily crouching on the floor with his lectern. People in the stands also ducked as shouts echoed through the crowd.
Someone can be heard near the microphone saying, “Duck, duck, duck, duck!”as officials rushed to the level. They piled on the former president from their bodies, as is their educational protocol, while other agents took positions on the level to look for the threat.
Screams could be heard from the crowd of several thousand people. One woman screamed louder than the others. Afterward, voices were heard saying “the shooter has fallen” several times, before someone asked “are we fit to move?” ” and “Are we clear?” Then someone ordered: “Let’s go. “
Trump may be heard on the video saying at least twice, “Let me take my shoes, let me take my shoes,” with a voice saying, “They gave it to me, sir. “
Trump stood up moments later and you can tell that he puts his right hand to his face, which was stained with blood. He then raised his fist in the air and gave the impression of saying the word “Fight” twice in front of his crowd of supporters, prompting loud applause and then chants of “United States. “UNITED STATES. UNITED STATES. “
The crowd applauded as he stood up and clenched his fist.
His caravan left the scene a few moments later. In the video, Trump turns to the crowd and raises his fist just before being loaded into a vehicle.
“They were all put on their knees or in a prone position, because we all knew, everyone learned that you shoot,” said Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for United States Senate in Pennsylvania, who was seated to Trump’s right.
Seeing Trump raise his fist, McCormick said, he looked over his shoulder and saw that someone had been hit while sitting in the stage stands.
Eventually, first responders pulled the injured user out of a giant crowd so he could get medical attention, McCormick said.
Journalists covering the demonstration heard five or six shots and many ducked to hide under tables. After the first two or three explosions, other people in the crowd were shocked, but they didn’t panic. An AP reporter at the scene reported that the noise at first sounded like firecrackers or likely the cracking of a car.
When it became clear that the stage had failed and that Trump would not speak again, participants began to leave the room. A man in an electric wheelchair was stranded in the box when his wheelchair’s battery died. Others tried to help him move.
Police temporarily asked the remaining people to leave the scene and Secret Service agents told reporters to “leave now. “This is a real crime scene.
Two firefighters from Steubenville, Ohio, who were present at the demonstration, told the AP they helped other people who appeared injured and heard bullets hit loudspeakers.
“The bullets hit around the stage, one hit the loudspeaker tower and then chaos broke out. “We threw ourselves on the ground and then the police converged on the stands,” Chris Takach said.
“The first thing I heard was some cracking noises,” Dave Sullivan said.
Sullivan saw one of the speakers hit and bullets fly and “we fell to the ground. “
He said that once the Secret Service and other administrations converged on Trump, he and Takach helped two other people who had been shot on the stand and cleared a path to pull them aside.
“It’s just an unhappy day for United States,” Sullivan said.
“After hearing the gunshots, the hydraulic line dripping everywhere, you might see the hydraulic fluid coming out. And then the perimeter tower started collapsing,” Sullivan said. “Then we heard another shot that I might hear, I knew there was something, it was bullets. They were not firecrackers.
A crusade for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump sits empty and littered with debris Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Evan Vucci/AP
The dangers of the crusades took on new urgency after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in California in 1968, and back in 1972, when Arthur Bremer shot and seriously wounded George Wallace, who was running as an independent with a rarely questionable crusade program. compared to Trump’s. This led to increased coverage of the candidates, threats persisted, notably endorsement of Jesse Jackson in 1988 and Barack Obama in 2008.
Presidents, after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, have even higher degrees of security. Trump is a rarity as a former president and current candidate.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the three men on Trump’s short list for vice president, temporarily sent statements expressing their fear for the former president, and Rubio shared a symbol taken while Trump was being escorted. level with his fist in the air and a touch of blood on his face accompanied by the words “God, President Trump. “
Shapiro, a Democrat, said on X that he had been briefed on the situation and that Pennsylvania State Police were present at the rally site.
“Violence against a politician or a political leader is surely unacceptable. He has no position in Pennsylvania or in the United States,” he said.
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