At an event in Pennsylvania, Trump was shot in the ear, but his campaign claims he’s okay. The gunman was killed.
A few days before he was scheduled to accept the Republican nomination for a third time, former US President Donald Trump was the subject of an attempted assassination on Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania. A flurry of gunshots caused panic, and a bleeding Trump—claiming to have been shot in the ear—was quickly surrounded by Secret Service agents as he rushed to his SUV and gave a defiant fist pump.
According to Trump’s team, the presumed Republican nominee was “fine” after the gunshot, which he said punctured the top portion of his right ear.
“As soon as I felt the bullet ripping through my skin and heard bullets and a zipping sound, I knew something was wrong. There was a lot of bleeding,” he said on social media.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was identified by the FBI early on Sunday as the person behind the assassination attempt. The investigation is still open and ongoing, according to the agency.
Officials reported that two onlookers suffered serious injuries and one attendee died, all of whom were men. The Secret Service declared that Trump was safe and that they had shot and killed the alleged gunman, who had ambushed the rally at an agricultural fair in Butler, Pennsylvania, from an elevated position.
In a late-Saturday news conference, the FBI stated that they had not yet determined the motive for the attempted assassination and were not ready to reveal the shooter’s identity.
This incident is the most significant attempt to kill a president or presidential contender since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It has drawn fresh attention to concerns of political violence in a highly politicized United States, less than four months before the presidential election. Additionally, it may change the atmosphere and security measures at the Republican National Convention, which starts in Milwaukee on Monday.
The organizers declared that the convention would go on as scheduled.
4o