Here’s what we know about the attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump, who was shot in the ear on Saturday during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania (northeastern United States).
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The 78-year-old former president was holding his last meeting there before the Republican convention which begins on Monday in Milwaukee (Wisconsin), and at the end of which he must be officially nominated as the Republican Party’s candidate for the presidential election next November.
The story of the shooting
In a white shirt and dark blazer, with a red cap bearing the word “MAGA” on his head, Donald Trump was denouncing illegal immigration when shots rang out at 6:08 p.m. local time.
“Look what just happened…” he said, before being interrupted by a rapid succession of four gunshots.
Donald Trump puts his hand to his right ear, to shouts of “Down!”, before a fifth and then a sixth shot.
The former president cowers behind his lectern as secret service members rush around him and screams of fear ring out from the audience.
More gunshots ring out, members of the audience throw themselves to the ground and more officers rush to the scene.
Seventeen seconds after the first shots, a final one rang out.
After a quick exchange of instructions, the Secret Service agents helped the former president, his hair disheveled, to his feet.
“Let me get my shoes,” he says, as security forces form a circle around him.
With a bloody face, he raises his fist to the crowd, who respond with cheers.
Barely two minutes after the shooting began, he was escorted off stage, cap in hand, before getting into an imposing black vehicle.
Trump says he “felt the bullet”
Donald Trump gave a first account of the shooting at 8:42 p.m. on his social network Truth Social.
“I was hit by a bullet that pierced the top of my right ear,” he wrote.
“I knew right away that something was wrong because I heard a whistle, gunshots, and I immediately felt the bullet tear the skin,” he detailed.
Hours later, he was seen getting off his plane unassisted, according to a video posted on social media by his deputy communications director.
His campaign team confirmed Saturday night that the former president planned to attend the Republican convention after undergoing a medical examination at a hospital as a precaution.
For its part, the White House indicated that Joe Biden, who is due to face Donald Trump in the November election, had been informed of the incident at 6:50 p.m.
“There is no place for this kind of violence in America,” the president said in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (east), where he was for the weekend.
Shortly before 10:30 p.m., his office said he had spoken with Donald Trump and was returning to the White House.
Shooter killed and identified
The alleged gunman, who was shot dead, was identified by the FBI as “Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania,” according to US media reports.
A video, published by the celebrity news website TMZ, shows the shooter lying on his stomach on the roof of a building and holding a rifle.
“The man has long brown hair and appears to be wearing a gray shirt and khaki pants. As you can see he is trying to carefully aim at a target in the distance before shooting,” TMZ reports.
At a press conference Saturday evening, the FBI confirmed that the shooting was indeed an “attempted assassination.”
The US Secret Service said in a statement that the suspected shooter “fired several shots toward the scene from an elevated position outside the rally” before being “neutralized” by agents.
Unverified footage shows the body of the alleged attacker lying on the sloping roof of a low building from where he fired.
Multiple witnesses said they saw the shooter before the shooting and alerted Butler police, who said they “responded to a number of reports of suspicious activity,” without providing further details.
According to US media reports, the shooter was armed with an AR15 semi-automatic rifle.
One dead, two seriously injured
One participant in the rally was killed and two others were seriously injured, all adult men, according to police.
Two witnesses told US media that they saw a man with fatal head injuries.
“The man behind me was shot in the head, he died instantly and (…) a woman appeared to have been hit in the forearm and hand,” a man identified only as Joseph told NBC News.