Donald Trump spent the night at his home in New Jersey Saturday after narrowly surviving an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania that took the 2024 presidential election to another level of tension and drama.
The former president received hospital treatment for an ear wound after being grazed by a bullet fired from a rooftop around 130 yards away. Trump was quickly bundled to the ground by Secret Service agents, but raised his fist in defiance, shouting “Fight! Fight! Fight!” to the crowd as he was led away shortly afterward.
The FBI confirmed the attempted assassination and named the suspected shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, from Bethel Park, an affluent, predominantly white suburb about 40 miles away.
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“Tonight we had what we’re calling an assassination attempt on our former President Donald Trump,” Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI Pittsburgh field office, told the press conference.
The shots, from an AR-15-style rifle, rang out in two bursts minutes into Trump’s appearance on the stage. Analysis of video footage suggested that the bullet that grazed Trump’s ear could well have killed him had he not turned his head to the right a split-second before.
The Secret Service confirmed that the shooter had been “neutralized.” One other person, apparently a rally-goer, was killed and two people left seriously wounded.
Speaking from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, about two hours after the shooting, President Joe Biden said, “There’s no place in America for this kind of violence.”
“It’s sick,” he added.
It is the first shooting of an American president since Ronald Reagan was shot in March 1981, two months into his first term in office, and left America feeling more divided than ever.
Robert F Kennedy Jr., the independent presdential candidate whose father was shot in June 1968 as he ran for the Democratic nomination, expressed his sympathies with Trump. “I was with my dad when he died in Los Angeles. I understand the implications that this has for our country, probably as well as anybody does,” he told NewsNation.
Witnesses at the Butler rally told how they saw the shooter “bear-climb” his way over a nearby rooftop—and tried unsuccessfully to get police and Secret Service agents to pay attention to him. If confirmed, that could suggest a huge failure on the part of the agency dedicated to protecting American presidents and former presidents.
Authorities initially said they were not prepared to publicly identify the shooter, who was not carrying identification, Rojek said, with the agency “looking at photographs right now, and we’re trying to run his DNA and get biometric confirmation.”
Shortly afterward, came a statement: “The FBI has identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the subject involved in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on July 13, in Butler, Pennsylvania. This remains an active and ongoing investigation, and anyone with information that may assist with the investigation is encouraged to submit photos or videos online at FBI.gov/butler or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.”
At the press conference, Rojek said, “We do not currently have an identified motive,” adding the FBI had received no threats alluding to the events at the Saturday rally.
State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens confirmed police have identified the victims—one attendee who died and two critically injured—but were also not prepared to release names, Bivens said.
When asked if it was a lone wolf attack, Bivens said, “We have one shooter tentatively identified, but we’re not stopping there. We’re following up on a lot of information. It will be some time before we can conclusively answer that question.” However, authorities believe there is no active threat.
Bivens concluded law enforcement was unaware of the shooter’s whereabouts until he began to fire. “That is our assessment at this time,” Bivens said, while adding “all the details of that will come out later in the investigation.”
Bivens said officials have “a good idea of what the weapon was,” but would not go into further detail, claiming it was still under investigation.
“It was a chaotic scene, law enforcement I believe acted heroically, quickly identifying and neutralizing the threat as well as responding to the various victims,” Bivens said.
Witnesses had earlier described seeing the shooter, who was not attending the rally, get into position.
One man, identified only as Greg, told the BBC that he was having a party outside the rally when five minutes into Trump’s speech, “We noticed a guy bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away from us.”
Bivens said law enforcement was aware of the witness reports, adding, “We’re following up on those.”
Meanwhile, Trump left the Butler area late Saturday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) confirmed on X, adding the former president was “under the protection of US Secret Service and with the assistance of the Pennsylvania State Police.”
Taking to Truth Social, the former president said, “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place.”
