Former United States President Donald Trump was injured in an apparent assassination attempt on Saturday, AP reported quoting two unidentified law enforcement officials.
The Republican Party’s presumptive presidential candidate was whisked away to safety by the United States Secret Service and rushed to a hospital after at least five shots rang out at his election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, at around 6.15 pm. The Secret Service is a federal agency that protects the country’s top leadership.
One spectator was killed while two others were critically injured in the shooting, according to the news agency.
There appeared to be blood on Trump’s face as he was evacuated from the lectern where he had been speaking and into a vehicle. The rally was held outdoors in an area with structures in close proximity.
The suspected assailant was not an attendee at the rally and was killed by Secret Service agents, reported AP.
He has been identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who is registered as a Republican voter, according to reports.
The authorities recovered one ArmaLite assault rifle at the scene.
An eyewitness told the BBC that he had noticed, about five to seven minutes after Trump began speaking, a man crawl onto a nearby roof with a rifle in hand. The man claimed that he and his friends had tried pointing this out to the authorities.
As he was being escorted away amid the ensuing chaos, the former president pumped his fist in the air thrice, eliciting chants of “USA! USA! USA!” from his supporters.
The attack came two days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the party is expected to officially nominate Trump as its candidate for the country’s presidential election scheduled for November.
“President Trump looks forward to joining you all in Milwaukee as we proceed with our convention to nominate him to serve as the 47th President of the United States,” Trump’s campaign said in a statement jointly issued with the Republican National Committee after the shooting.
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“I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” Trump later said in a statement on social media. “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place.”
“A suspected shooter fired multiple shots from an elevated position outside of the rally venue,” the Secret Service said in a statement.
Soon after, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that it “has assumed the role of the lead federal law enforcement agency in the investigation of the incident”. The agency will be working with the Secret Service and local law enforcement.
The agency said that law enforcement agencies were unaware about the presence of the shooter until shots were fired. It has not released any information about the man’s alleged motive.
The attack marks the most serious attempt to assassinate a United States president or presidential candidate since 1981, when President Ronald Reagan survived a shooting in Washington DC.
“There’s no place in America for this type of violence,” said President Joe Biden, who is expected to run against Trump in the presidential elections. “We must unite as one nation to condemn it.”
Biden said that he had been briefed on the shooting and thanked the Secret Service for getting his rival to safety. The Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential candidate will be halting all campaign activities and political advertisements in light of the incident.
“We are praying for [Trump], his family, and all those who have been injured and impacted by this senseless shooting,” said Vice President Kamala Harris, who is Biden’s presumptive running mate.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also condemned the attack.
“Deeply concerned by the attack on my friend, former President Donald Trump,” he said in a social media post. “Violence has no place in politics and democracies.”
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Junior, told AP that his father was “in great spirits” after the shooting. “He will never stop fighting to save America, no matter what the radical left throws at him,” Trump Junior said.
The violence was denounced by former United States President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, among other political leaders.
Billionaires Elon Musk and Bill Ackman endorsed Trump’s presidential candidacy soon after the shooting.
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