It was confirmed by the FBI that it was an assassination attempt. The gunman and at least one audience member are dead, the Secret Service said, and two other attendees are critically injured, as reported by CNN.
The former president said on social media that he was shot and hit by a bullet in the “upper part of my right ear.” The Secret Service said the former president is safe after he was rushed off the stage with blood on his face.
The FBI has identified the gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Authorities say he fired multiple shots from a building rooftop just outside the rally venue, before he was killed by Secret Service agents.
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Eyewitnesses described a “bloody” and chaotic scene. “It’s pure insanity,” said one rally attendee.
President Joe Biden spoke with Trump after the shooting. Biden denounced the violence in remarks Saturday night and said in a statement earlier that he’s “grateful” Trump is safe. Biden, who was planning to stay in Delaware for the weekend, returned to the White House earlier than planned so he can continue receiving briefings from law enforcement.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg holds a press conference during NATO’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington, D.C., on July 11.
More international leaders are sharing their shock at the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
A witness claims he told officers that he saw a gunman moving “from roof to roof,” moments before an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.
Ben Macer was along a fence line when he saw “the guy move from roof to roof. (I) told an officer (the alleged shooter) was on the roof,” according to CNN affiliate KDKA.
“When I turned around to go back to where I was, it was when the gunshots started, and then it was just chaos, and we all came running away, and that was that,” Macer told KDKA.
Authorities have identified the gunman involved in the attack as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by Secret Service agents at the scene after the shooting.
The FBI said he is as a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania – about 35 miles south of Butler, where Trump was holding his rally.
Authorities have identified the gunman involved in the attack against former US President Donald Trump on Saturday as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by Secret Service agents at the scene after the shooting.
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The FBI named Crooks in a statement early Sunday morning, identifying him as a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania – about 35 miles south of Butler, where Trump was holding his rally.
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022, according to a local media report and a video of the school’s commencement.
He was registered to vote as a Republican, according to a listing in Pennsylvania’s voter database that matched his name, age, and a Bethel Park address that law enforcement was searching Saturday night and is linked to Crooks in public records.
This year’s presidential election would have been the first he was old enough to vote in.
Federal Election Commission records show that a donor listed as Thomas Crooks with the same address gave $15 to a Democratic-aligned political action committee called the Progressive Turnout Project in January 2021.
When reached by CNN late Saturday night, Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking about his son.
