A bloodied Donald Trump was rushed from a campaign rally stage to a hospital after an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Several gunshots could be heard minutes after Trump began speaking to supporters late on Saturday afternoon at the Butler Farm Show Grounds.
The former president grabbed his right ear then ducked to the ground behind a lectern as his Secret Service detail swarmed him and hoisted him from the ground before carrying him off stage. Screams filled the crowd and blood could be seen running down the right side of Trump’s face and ear as he raised his fist to supporters. The event was evacuated and declared a crime scene.
Trump called on America to “stand united” after he survived the assassination attempt. The former president thanked God for preventing the “unthinkable from happening” and said he would remain “defiant in the face of wickedness”.
Secret Service agents killed the suspected shooter who was outside the security perimeter when the shots were fired, according to law enforcement officials. A spectator was killed, and two others have been critically injured.
The FBI has identified the gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, from Pennsylvania.
The suspected gunman appeared to have been perched on a rooftop with an AR-style rifle outside the rally, according to law enforcement. Law enforcement officials are investigating the incident as an assassination attempt.
In a statement on Truth Social several hours later, Trump said that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”
“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” the post stated.
A Trump campaign spokesperson said that the former president was “fine” and was treated at a nearby medical facility immediately after the shooting.
President Joe Biden, speaking to the public from Delaware, said that “there’s no place in America for this kind of violence.”
“We cannot allow for this to be happening,” he added. “We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.”
The president later spoke with Trump by phone, according to the White House. Trump has now returned to his home in New Jersey from hospital following the attack. The Independent