BUTLER, Pennsylvania — Shortly after an attempt to kill him, former President Donald Trump on Sunday called for unity and resilience as shocked leaders across the political divide recoiled from the shooting that left him wounded but “fine” and the shooter and a rally attendee dead.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said the upper part of his right ear was pierced in the shooting. His aides said he was in “great spirits” and doing well.
“I knew something was wrong right away, I heard a whooshing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet rip through my skin,” he wrote on his social media site. “There was a lot of bleeding.”
In a subsequent message on Sunday, Trump said that “it was only God who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”
“At this time, it is more important than ever that we stand united and show our true character as Americans, remain strong and determined, and not allow evil to win,” his message said.
The FBI identified the shooter Sunday morning as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, and continued to investigate.
Secret Service agents fatally shot Crooks. The gunman struck from an elevated position outside the rally venue at a farm show in Butler, the agency said.
One visitor was killed and two bystanders were seriously injured, authorities said. All were identified as male.
Investigators believe the gun was purchased by Crooks’ father at least six months ago, two law enforcement officials said. Federal agents were still trying to determine when and how his son obtained the gun and gather additional information about Crooks as they tried to identify a motive, the officials said.
The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The attack was the worst attempt to kill a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was gunned down in 1981. It highlighted concerns about political violence in a deeply polarized U.S. less than four months before the presidential election. And it could change the tone and security posture at the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee.
Organizers said the conference would proceed as planned.
Trump flew to New Jersey after a visit to a local hospital in Pennsylvania, landing at Newark Liberty International Airport shortly after midnight. Videos posted by an aide showed the former president exiting his private jet flanked by U.S. Secret Service agents and heavily armed members of the agency’s counter-assault team, an unusually visible show of force by his protective detail.
President Joe Biden, who is running against Trump, was briefed on the attack and spoke to Trump hours after the shooting, the White House said.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence,” the president said. “It’s sick. It’s sick.”
Biden wanted to return to Washington early, cutting short a weekend at his beachfront home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Many Republicans were quick to blame Biden and his allies for the violence, arguing that continued attacks on Trump as a threat to democracy have created a toxic environment. They pointed in particular to a comment Biden made to donors on July 8, in which he said, “it’s time to put Trump in the crosshairs.”
Officials said members of the Secret Service counterassault team killed the gunman. The heavily armed tactical team travels with the president and major party nominees and is meant to counter active threats while other agents focus on protecting and evacuating the person at the center of the protection.
An AP analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos from the Trump rally scene, as well as satellite images of the location, shows the shooter got astonishingly close to the podium where the former president spoke.
A video posted on social media and located by the AP shows the body of a person in a gray camouflage jacket lying motionless on the roof of a building at AGR International, a manufacturing facility just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s rally was held.
The rooftop where the person was lying was less than 150 meters (164 yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance at which a decent sniper could reasonably hit a human target. For reference, 150 meters is the distance at which U.S. Army recruits are required to hit a scaled human silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle. The AR-15, like the one the shooter at the Trump rally was carrying, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military’s M-16.
When asked during the press conference whether police did not know the shooter was on the roof until he started shooting, Kevin Rojek, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh office, replied that “that is our assessment at this time.”
“It is surprising” that the shooter was able to open fire on the stage before the Secret Service killed him, he added.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees the Secret Service, said officials were engaged with the Biden and Trump campaigns and “took every possible measure to ensure their safety and security.”
Trump displayed a graph of border crossing numbers as the gunfire began after 6:10 p.m.
When the first pop sounded, Trump said, “Oh,” and raised his hand to his right ear, looking at it, before quickly sitting down on the floor behind his lectern. The people in the stands behind him also crouched down as screams rang out through the crowd.
Someone could be heard at the microphone saying, “Get down, get down, get down, get down!” as officers rushed to the podium. They piled on top of the former president to shield him with their bodies, as their training protocol dictates, while other officers took up positions on the podium to search for the threat.
There was shouting from the crowd of several thousand people. One woman screamed louder than the rest. Then voices were heard saying, “Shooter’s down,” several times, before someone asked, “Are we good to move?” and “Are we safe?” Then someone ordered, “Let’s move.”
In the video, Trump could be heard saying at least twice, “Let me get my shoes, let me get my shoes,” while another voice said, “I got you, sir.”
Trump stood up moments later and was seen reaching for his face, which was smeared with blood, with his right hand. He raised his fist in the air and appeared to mutter the word “Fight” twice to his supporters, prompting loud cheers and then chants of “USA. USA. USA.”
His motorcade left the venue shortly afterward. Video footage showed Trump turning to the crowd and raising a fist in the air just before he was put into a vehicle.
“Everybody got down on their knees or in their prone position because we all knew, everybody became aware that this was gunfire,” said Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, who sat to Trump’s right onstage.
When he saw Trump raise his fist in the air, McCormick looked over his shoulder and saw that someone had been punched while he was sitting in the stands behind the podium, he said.
Eventually, emergency workers were able to carry the injured person out of the large crowd so he could receive medical attention, McCormick said.
Reporters covering the rally heard five or six shots, and many took cover under tables. After the first two or three blasts, people in the crowd seemed startled but not panicked. An AP reporter at the scene reported that the noise initially sounded like fireworks or perhaps a car returning fire.
When it was clear that the situation was under control and Trump would not return to speak, attendees began to leave the room. One man in an electric wheelchair became stuck on the field when his chair’s battery died. Others tried to help him.
Police quickly told those who remained to leave the scene, and Secret Service agents told reporters to “leave now. This is a live crime scene.”
Two firefighters from nearby Steubenville, Ohio, who were at the protest told the AP that they were helping people who appeared to be injured and heard bullets over loudspeakers.
“The bullets were rattling around the stands, one hit the speaker tower and then chaos broke out,” Chris Takach said. “We hit the ground and then the police were in the stands.”
“The first thing I heard was a couple of bangs,” said Dave Sullivan.
Sullivan said he saw one of the speakers get hit and bullets ring out and “we hit the ground.”
He said that when the Secret Service and other authorities were monitoring Trump, he and Takach helped two people who may have been shot in the stands and cleared a path to get them out of the way.
“A sad day for America,” said Sullivan, who recalled fluid spraying from a mechanical line onto the stage before a speaker tower began to collapse.
“Then we heard another shot, you could hear it, you knew something was there — it was bullets. It wasn’t fireworks.”
The dangers of campaigning took on new urgency after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in California in 1968, and again in 1972 when Arthur Bremer shot and seriously wounded George Wallace, who was running as an independent on a platform that has sometimes been compared to Trump’s. That led to greater protection for candidates even as the threats continued, notably against Jesse Jackson in 1988 and Barack Obama in 2008.
Presidents, especially since the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, have even more layers of security, and Trump is a rarity, both as a former president and current candidate.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, three men on Trump’s shortlist for vice president, all quickly sent out statements expressing concern for the former president. Rubio shared a photo of Trump being escorted off the stage with his fist in the air and a trail of blood on his face, along with the words “God protect President Trump.”
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Colvin, Balsamo and Price reported from New York. Long reported from Washington. Tucker reported from Westport, Connecticut. Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Will Weissert in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, contributed to this report.