Former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is surrounded by United States Secret Service agents at a crossover rally 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 “doing well” after the shooting, which he said pierced the top of his right ear.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong, I heard a whistle, gunshots and I immediately felt the bullet tear my skin. There were a lot of hemorrhages,” he wrote on his social network.
In the post on his social network, Trump also thanked “everyone for their attention and prayers yesterday, because only God prevented the unthinkable from happening. “
“We WILL NOT, 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 prays “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 by 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 dominion fire chief. He was known as Corey Comperatore. 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 wife and daughter from the bullets.
Randy Reamer, president of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company, called Comperatore a “stand-up guy” and “a true firefighter brother. “
A GoFundMe submitted to Comperatore’s family had already surpassed more than $180,000 in donations as of Sunday.
The FBI named Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, early Sunday as involved in the shooting, which the firm said it “calls 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 promptly respond to messages from The Associated Press. His father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN Saturday night that he was looking to find out “what’s going on” but that he would only speak 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 handed to her son and gather more information about Crooks, officials said.
A blockade was imposed Sunday to prevent traffic near Crooks’ home, in an enclave of modest brick houses nestled in the hills of the working city of Pittsburgh.
The political tendencies of the criminals 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 top school two years ago.
The FBI released 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 from the scene of Trump’s rally, as well as satellite photographs of the site, shows that the gunman managed to get eerily close to where the former president was speaking. Social media and geotagging via AP show the framing of a user dressed in gray camouflage, motionless on the roof of an AGR International Inc. building, a production facility just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where the event took place. Trump rally.
The rooftop where the user was located was less than 150 meters from where Trump was speaking, a distance at which a clever sniper could hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 yards is a distance that U. S. Army recruits will have to reach a human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle. The AR-15, like the shooter at Trump’s rally, is the semi-automatic civilian edition 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 every step imaginable to ensure their safety and security. “
It is the most serious assassination attempt committed against a president or presidential candidate since the assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981. He drew attention to considerations of political violence in a deeply polarized United States, less than four months before the presidential election. it may simply replace the content and security posture of the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee.
Organizers said the conference would 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 jet flanked by heavily armed US Secret Service agents by Trump. members of the agency’s counterattack team: an unusually visual show of force from his cover team.
President Biden, who opposes Trump, reported 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 were quick to blame Biden and his allies for the violence, arguing that sustained attacks on Trump, seen as a risk to democracy, created a poisonous environment. They highlighted a comment Biden made to donors on July 8, saying “it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye. “
United States Secret Service agents react as former Republican President Donald Trump is surrounded by other agents at a crossover rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Evan Vucci/AP
Trump appeared on a board with border crossing numbers when the shooting began after 6:10 p. m.
When the first pop sounded, Trump said “Oh,” put his hand to his right ear and looked at it, before temporarily crouching on the floor at his desk. People in the stands also ducked as screams echoed through the crowd.
Someone may be heard near the microphone saying, “Duck, crouch, crouch, crouch!”as officials rushed to the level. They piled up from their bodies the most sensitive of the former president towards him, such as his educational protocol. while other agents took positions at 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 see that he points his right hand towards his face, which was stained with blood. Then he shook her fist in the air and appeared to say the word “Fight” twice in front of her. the crowd of his supporters, prompting loud applause and chants of “USA. ” USA. “
The crowd cheered him on as he stood up and shook his fist.
His caravan left the place a few moments later. The video shows Trump turning toward the crowd and raising his fist just before being put into a vehicle.
“Everyone was put on their knees or in a prone position, because we all knew, everyone learned that it shoots,” said Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for the US 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 punched while sitting in the stage bleachers.
Finally, first responders were to pull the injured user out of a giant crowd so he could get medical treatment, McCormick said.
Journalists covering the demonstration heard five or six gunshots and many ducked to hide under tables. After the first two or three explosions, other people in the crowd were shocked, but did not panic. An AP reporter at the scene reported that the noise at first sounded like firecrackers or probably a car backfiring.
When it became clear that the situation had failed and that Trump would not speak again, the participants began to leave the room. A man in an electric wheelchair became trapped in the box when his wheelchair’s battery failed. Others tried to help him move.
Police temporarily asked others to leave the scene and Secret Service agents told reporters to “leave now. “It is a real crime scene.
Two firefighters from nearby Steubenville, Ohio, who were at the rally, told the AP they helped others who appeared injured and heard bullets hit the speakers.
“Bullets hit the stands, one hit the speaker tower and then chaos broke out. “We fell to the ground and then the police gathered in the stands,” Takach said.
“The first thing I heard was some crackling,” Dave Sullivan said.
Sullivan saw one of the loudspeakers hit and the bullets hit and “hit the bridge. “
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 America,” Sullivan said.
“After hearing the gunshots, the hydraulic line dripping everywhere, you might see hydraulic fluid coming out of it. And then the complex tower started collapsing,” Sullivan said. “Then we heard another shot. Maybe you heard something, you knew there was something, it was bullets. They weren’t firecrackers.
A gathering place of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s crusade sits empty and littered with rubble Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Evan Vucci/AP
The dangers of crusading 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 debatable crusading program. . compared to Trump’s. This led to increased coverage of the candidates, threats persisted, particularly the 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 Governor Doug Burgum, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Senator J. D. Vance, the three men on Trump’s short list for vice president, were quick to send statements expressing fear for the former president, and Rubio shared a symbol taken as Trump. He was escorted off the level with his fist raised and a smear of blood on his face accompanied the words “God, President Trump. “
Shapiro, a Democrat, said on X that he had been informed of the situation and that Pennsylvania State Police were present at the rally site.
“Violence against a political party or a political leader is certainly unacceptable. This has no standing in Pennsylvania or the United States,” he said.
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