A shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, is being investigated as an attempted assassination of the former president and presumptive Republican nominee, law enforcement officials say.
Trump called for unity and resilience on Sunday as shocked leaders across the political divide responded to the shooting.
The Secret Service said it killed the suspected gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attacked from an elevated position outside the rally site.
Two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that investigators believe the gun was purchased by Crook’s father at least six months ago.
The officials said federal agents were still working to understand when and how Crooks, a registered Republican voter in Pennsylvania according to state records, obtained the gun and gathered additional information about him as they tried to identify a possible motive.
The investigation focuses on scammers. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
On Saturday, a barrage of gunfire caused panic, and a bloodied Trump, who said he had been shot in the ear, was surrounded by Secret Service and rushed to his SUV pumping his fist in a show of defiance .
Trump’s campaign said the presumptive Republican nominee was doing “fine” after the shooting, which he said left the upper part of his right ear pierced.
“I immediately knew something was wrong: I heard a whooshing sound and shots and immediately felt the bullet tear through the skin. A lot of bleeding took place,” he wrote on his social media site.
One visitor was killed and two spectators were seriously injured, authorities said. All were identified as men.
The attack was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, is covered by U.S. Secret Service agents following an incident at a rally on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
It drew new attention to concerns about political violence in a deeply polarized US, less than four months before the presidential election. And it could change the tenor and security posture at the Republican National Convention, which starts Monday in Milwaukee.
Organizers said the convention would proceed as planned.
The latest news from Canada and around the world happens to be sent to your email.
Trump flew to New Jersey after visiting a local hospital in Pennsylvania, landing at Newark Liberty International Airport shortly after midnight.
A video 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 counterstrike team, an unusually visible show of force from his protective detail.
President Joe Biden, who is running against Trump, was briefed on the incident and spoke with Trump hours after the shooting, the White House said.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence,” the president said in public remarks. “It’s sick. It’s sick.”
Biden planned to return to Washington early, cutting short a weekend at his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Many Republicans quickly blamed Biden and his allies for the violence, arguing that continued attacks on Trump as a threat to democracy have created a toxic environment. In particular, they pointed to a comment Biden made to donors on July 8, in which he said, “It’s time to put a bullseye on Trump.”
Officials said members of the U.S. Secret Service counterattack team killed the gunman. The heavily armed tactical team travels everywhere with the president and major party nominees and is intended to counter any active threats while other officers focus on protecting and evacuating the person at the center of protection .
Law enforcement recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene, according to a third person familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, is helped off stage by U.S. Secret Service agents during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, July 13, 2024.
Gene J. Puskar/AP
An AP analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos from the scene of the Trump rally, as well as satellite images of the location, shows that the gunman was able to get astonishingly close to the stage where the former president spoke.
A video posted to social media and geolocated by the AP shows the body of a person in gray camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a building at AGR International Inc., a factory just north of the Butler site Farm Show where Trump’s rally was held. .
The roof where the person lay was less than 500 feet from where Trump spoke, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 yards is a distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle. The AR-15, like the shooter at the Trump rally, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M-16.
When asked at the news 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 Field Office, responded that “at this point our assessment is.”
“It’s surprising” that the gunman was able to open fire on the stage before the Secret Service killed him, he added.
Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, is helped off stage during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, July 13, 2024.
Gene J. Puskar/AP
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees the Secret Service, said officials were involved in the Biden and Trump campaigns and “took every measure possible to ensure their safety and security.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press
