Assassination bid on Trump at election rally; suspect shot dead
PENNSYLVANIA, July 14, 2024
Former US President Donald Trump was rushed off stage after gunshots erupted at a rally in Pennsylvania in an apparent assassination attempt.
Footage showed him grimace and raise a hand to his right ear, before ducking as several sharp cracks - a series of shots - broke out.
He was quickly swarmed by US Secret Service agents and dragged off stage to a waiting vehicle. He raised a fist as he was bundled into the car.
The FBI have identified the dead suspected gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks, aged 20, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
Trump was about 120 to 150 m from the suspected gunman at the time of the shooting at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to CNN’s analysis of their geolocated positions.
Trump had been holding the event at the Butler Farm Show Grounds on Saturday afternoon.
The gunman fired multiple shots from an “elevated position” outside the rally, according to the Secret Service. Law enforcement sources told CNN the shooter was on a building rooftop just outside the rally venue.
Trump was injured in the shooting, which the FBI says was an assassination attempt. A gunman and at least one audience member are dead, the Secret Service said.
In a post to his Truth Social network, Trump said a bullet pierced the "upper part" of his right ear. Earlier, his spokesperson said he was receiving treatment at a local medical centre.
"I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin," Trump wrote. "Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening."
Blood was clearly visible on Trump's ear and face as protection officers rushed him away.
The suspect was shot dead at the scene by US Secret Service officers, the agency's spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said. He added that one bystander was killed in the shooting and two others were critically injured.
Officials later revealed that all three victims were male.
Law enforcement sources told the BBC's US partner CBS News that Crooks had been armed with a rifle and had fired from an elevated structure a few hundred metres away outside the venue.
Earlier, agents told reporters in Butler they had yet to establish a motive for the assassination attempt.
