By Frank Kamuntu
Former President Donald Trump says he was shot in the ear after a gunman perched on the roof of a nearby building opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday — a harrowing incident that the FBI called an assassination attempt.
The shooting, which set the country on edge on the eve of the Republican National Convention, left one spectator dead, two others critically injured, and sparked chaos at the event. As the former president spoke, shots crackled and Trump, hand to his ear, dropped to the ground where he was surrounded by agents before behind hustled off the stage into a waiting car amid the screams and confusion of the crowd.
The shooting, which is being investigated by the FBI overseen by the Justice Department’s National Security Division, as well as the U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh, comes amid a heightened threat environment.
The Secret Service, in a statement, said that a shooter “fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue” after which agents “neutralized the shooter, who is now deceased.”
The shooter fired as many as eight rounds from an AR-style rifle while perched on a rooftop adjacent to the venue and was 200-300 yards away at the time of the shooting, law enforcement sources said.
It was “surprising” that the suspected gunman was able to get off as many shots as he allegedly did, law enforcement said, adding that the gunman was a “very determined attacker.”
One spectator was killed and two others critically injured, the Secret Service said in a statement. All were adult men, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said during a press conference. The shots fired were “scattered” and the injured and dead had been spread through the crowd, he said.
The FBI early on Sunday identified the suspected gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. The FBI had earlier said they believed they had identified the shooter, but were not releasing his name during the sensitive first steps in the investigation, according to a law enforcement source. The early indication was that the shooter was a lone wolf, but the situation was fluid, the source said.
FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek earlier had said the agency was trying to assess the motive for the shooting and to confirm the gunman’s identity. “It’s a matter of doing biometric confirmations, so there was no identification on the individual for example so we’re looking at photographs right now and we’re trying to run his DNA and get biometric confirmation.”
There appeared to be blood on Trump’s right ear as he was being taken off stage, and he could be seen mouthing “fight” and pumping his fist.
Bivens described a “chaotic scene” where law enforcement acted “heroically.” Bivens said officials were following up on reports about suspicious occurrences that they received prior to the shooting.
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