“It’s more important than ever that we stick together”: Trump

BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — The day after an apparent assassination attempt, former President Donald Trump called for unity and resilience Sunday as the political world reeled from the incident that left him injured but “okay” and the shooter and one of his attendees dead.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said the top of his right ear was hit in the shooting. His aides said Trump was “in good spirits” and doing well.

“I knew immediately something was wrong because I heard a whizzing sound, gunshots and immediately felt the bullet go through my skin,” she said in a post on her social media account Truth Social. “There was a lot of bleeding.”

Then on Sunday, Trump wrote that “only God prevented the unthinkable from happening.”

“At this time, it is more important than ever that we stand together, and show our true character as Americans by remaining strong and determined, and not letting evil win,” Trump wrote.

The FBI identified the shooter early Sunday as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. The agency said the investigation is ongoing.

Crooks was shot dead by Secret Service agents. The shooter had fired from an elevated position outside the gathering at an agricultural fair in Butler, the agency said.

At least one man at the campaign rally was killed and two others were seriously injured, authorities said.

Investigators believe Crooks’ father purchased the gun at least six months ago, according to two law enforcement officials. Federal agents are trying to learn when and how his son obtained the weapon and gather additional information about Crooks to identify what motivated him to shoot, officials said.

Police sources told The Associated Press on Sunday that police found bomb-making materials in the shooting suspect’s home and vehicle.

The two sources were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Crooks’ political leanings are not immediately known. Records show Crooks was a registered Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he donated $15 to a progressive political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021, the day President Joe Biden was sworn in.

Authorities told reporters that Crooks was not carrying identification, so they were using DNA and other methods to confirm his identity. Authorities recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

The attack was the most serious attempt, or apparent attempt, to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It comes amid a deeply polarized political atmosphere in the United States less than four months before the presidential election. And it could alter the tone and security posture at the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee.

Convention organizers announced that the event will go ahead as planned.

Trump flew to New Jersey after visiting a local hospital in Pennsylvania and landed shortly after midnight at Newark Liberty International Airport. A video posted by an aide showed the former president stepping off his private plane surrounded by Secret Service agents and heavily armed members of the agency’s counterstrike team — a rare show of force by his escort.

President Biden, who is facing Trump in the presidential race, was briefed on the incident and spoke to Trump several hours after the incident, according to the White House.

“There is no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden said in public remarks. “It’s sick. It’s sick.”

Many Republicans were quick to blame the violence on Biden and his allies, arguing that the constant 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, saying that “it’s time to put Trump in the crosshairs.”

Officials said the gunman was killed by members of the Secret Service’s counterstrike team. The heavily armed tactical team travels everywhere with the president and leading candidates and is tasked with confronting any active threats while other agents focus on safeguarding and evacuating the person at the protective facility.

An AP analysis of more than a dozen videos and photographs from the scene of Trump’s rally, as well as satellite images of the site, shows the shooter was able to get surprisingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking.

A video posted on social media and geolocated by the AP shows the body of a person dressed in gray camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a building at AGR International Inc., a factory just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s event was held.

The roof where the alleged shooter lay was less than 150 meters (164 yards) from where Trump stood, a distance from which a decent-level marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is the distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle. The AR-15, as held by the shooter at the Trump rally, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M16.

The distance from which Crooks fired, and the fact that he was wearing camouflage, raised speculation that he had served in the military. However, all branches of the military, in response to an AP inquiry, said Sunday that they have no record of Crooks having served.

Asked at a news conference whether law enforcement did not know the shooter was on the roof until he started shooting, Kevin Rojek, special agents in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, said, “That’s our assessment right now.”

“It’s amazing” that the attacker was able to shoot at 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 “taking every possible step to ensure their safety.”

A CAMPAIGN EVENT INTERRUPTED BY GUNSHOTS

Trump was holding up a chart with numbers on border crossings when the shooting began at 6:10 p.m.

After the first outburst, Trump said, “Oh,” and put his hand to his right ear and looked at it, before quickly ducking behind his lectern. People in the stands behind him also ducked, as screams could be heard from the crowd.

Someone near the microphone at Trump’s lectern was heard saying, “Get down, get down, get down, get down!” as officers guarding the former president positioned themselves over him to shield him with their bodies, as is their training protocol, while other officers took up positions on the stage to spot the alleged attacker.

Screams rang out from the crowd of thousands. One woman’s scream stood out from the chaos. Then voices repeatedly said “attacker down” before someone asked if it was safe to move. Then someone ordered “we need to move.”

Trump could be heard on the video saying at least twice: “Let me get my shoes, let me get my shoes,” and another voice was heard saying: “I’ve got him, sir.”

Trump stood up moments later and could be seen placing his right hand on his neck and there appeared to be blood on his face. He then raised his fist in the air and appeared to utter the word “fight” twice to his crowd of supporters, prompting loud applause and then chants of “USA. USA. USA.”

The crowd cheered as Trump stood up and raised his fist.

His motorcade left the scene moments later. Video shows Trump turning to the crowd and raising a fist just before he was loaded into a vehicle.

WITNESSES HEARD SEVERAL SHOTS AND DROWNED FOR COVER

“Everybody got down on their knees or face down, because we all knew, everybody realized that these were shots fired,” said Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, who was seated just to Trump’s right on the stage.

When she saw Trump raise his fist, McCormick said, she looked over her shoulder and noticed someone had been hit while sitting in the bleachers behind the stage.

Ultimately, first responders were able to pull the injured person out of a large crowd so he could receive medical attention, McCormick said.

Journalists covering the event heard five or six shots and many ducked for cover, hiding under tables.

After the first two or three explosions, people in the crowd seemed surprised but not frightened. An AP reporter at the scene reported that at first the noise sounded like firecrackers or perhaps a car.

But then there were more shots. Panic gripped the crowd as they realized what was happening. Shouts of “get down!” rang out from the crowd.

When it became clear that the situation was under control and Trump would not be returning, attendees began to leave the venue. One man in an electric wheelchair was trapped on the field when his chair’s battery died. Others tried to help him move.

Police soon asked those remaining to leave the scene, and Secret Service agents told reporters, “You need to leave. This is a crime scene.”

Two firefighters from nearby Steubenville, Ohio, who were at the event told the AP they helped people who appeared to be injured and heard bullets hitting loudspeakers.

“Bullets rang out around the stands, one hit the speaker tower, and then chaos broke out. We fell to the ground and then the police converged on the stands,” said Chris Takach.

“The first thing I heard was a couple of cracks,” Dave Sullivan added.

Sullivan said he saw one of the speakers get hit and bullets ring out and “we dropped to the ground.”

He said that once Secret Service agents and others swarmed Trump, he and Takach helped two people who may have been shot on the steps and cleared a path for them to be removed.

“It’s just a sad day for America,” Sullivan said.

“After we heard the gunshots, the hydraulic line was spraying everywhere, you could see hydraulic fluid coming out of it. And then the speaker tower started to fall,” Sullivan said. “Then we heard another gunshot. It wasn’t firecrackers.”

POLITICAL VIOLENCE SHAKES THE EU AGAIN

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 campaign platform that has sometimes been compared to Trump’s. That led to increased protection of candidates, even as threats persisted, notably against Jesse Jackson in 1988 and Barack Obama in 2008.

Presidents, particularly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, have even higher levels of security. Trump is a rarity as both a former president and a current candidate.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance — the three men on Trump’s short list for vice president — quickly sent out statements expressing concern for the former president, with Rubio sharing an image taken as Trump was being led off the stage, his fist raised and a trickle of blood running down his face, along with the words “God protected President Trump.”