Donald Trump was shot in the ear from a rooftop during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
About a dozen shots were heard. One spectator was killed and two others were injured. The attacker was killed by a Secret Service sniper. He was wearing camouflage and some reporters said the roof where he was positioned was less than 150 meters from the stage.
Richard Goldinger, the prosecutor for Butler County, where the attack occurred, said instead that the attacker was on the roof of an adjacent building, outside the event area. "A rifle was needed to carry out the attack because it was several hundred meters away," the prosecutor said.
The FBI has identified the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Pennsylvania, according to multiple U.S. media reports. "The FBI has identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the subject of interest in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania," the FBI said in a statement cited by NBC and CBS, among others.
Crooks was a Republican, according to the Washington Post, citing Pennsylvania state voter registration records.
"This evening we had what we call an attempted assassination against our former President Donald Trump," Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI's field office, said after the federal agency took over the investigation into the attack. The FBI said it had "tentatively identified" the shooter at the tycoon's rally, but has not released his identity.
Rojek explained that the site of the rally “is still an active crime scene,” stressing that investigators have not yet concluded their investigations in the area of ??the shooting.
In the meantime, law enforcement has recovered the weapon used to shoot Trump. It is an 'Ar-15' style rifle, one of those most used in mass shootings.
According to the BBC, witnesses tried "desperately" to warn police of the presence of a sniper armed with an armed rifle on the roof moments before the attack on Trump. "You could clearly see him with a rifle in his hand," said one witness, claiming to have warned police who, according to his account, "had no idea what was happening."
After being reached by the attacker, Trump was immediately surrounded by the Secret Service and stood up, bleeding. Once on his feet, he raised his fist. The crowd greeted him with shouts of encouragement but was also in a panic over the gunfire. "They pierced the top of my ear, unbelievable that this is happening in the US," the former US president commented on his social Truth. "We fight, we fight, we fight," he shouted as the Secret Service was carrying him off the stage.
His campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, later reported that the tycoon was taken to a hospital in the same area as Butler, for a check-up but "he is fine." "President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action after this atrocious act," he added.
The White House announced that President Joe Biden spoke with Trump after the attack. The American president also spoke with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Butler Mayor Bob Dandoy. Biden immediately returned to Washington after the incident: he was at his residence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
"Jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for bringing him to safety. There is no place for this type of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it": this is what Joe Biden said in a statement released by the White House after the attack on Donald Trump.
The tycoon's daughter, Ivanka, posted a message on X in which she wrote: "Thank you for your love and prayers for my father and the other victims of today's senseless violence in Butler. I am grateful to the Secret Service and all other law enforcement officers for their swift and decisive actions today. I continue to pray for our country. I love you, Dad, today and always".
"I just got off the phone with my dad and he is in great spirits. He will never stop fighting to save America, no matter what the radical left throws at him".
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