The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced in a statement on Sunday that it has identified suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as a “person of interest” in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
The shooting happened Saturday night during a campaign rally at Butler Park Showgrounds in Pennsylvania.
In a social media post, Trump said he was “shot above the right ear” but “OK.” The former president, with his ear bloody, was hurriedly escorted off the stage by Secret Service agents. One attendee was killed and two seriously injured.
The political leanings of Crooks, who was shot and killed by Secret Service agents after the assassination attempt, were not immediately clear. Records show Crooks was registered as a 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 have not made public a possible motive.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday that the airspace above Bethel Park was closed “effective immediately” for special safety reasons.
The U.S. Secret Service said agents shot and killed a suspect after he fired shots at Trump, who was speaking at the rally, from an elevated position outside the Butler County venue.
He thanked law enforcement for their “swift response.”
“Most importantly,” he wrote in Truth Social, “we are in contact with the families of those killed at the rally and [those] He was seriously injured,” Trump said, adding that he was taken to a hospital for examination and then Reportedly He was discharged from the hospital at approximately 10:20pm local time.
“I can’t believe this kind of behavior would happen in our country.”
NBC News footage showed more than a dozen gunshots ringing out at the rally, followed by gunfire apparently from agents guarding the president, who was speaking on stage at the time.
“Get down, get down, get down!” could be heard yelling. As gunfire continued and screams could be heard from the crowd, agents arrived and threw themselves on top of Trump.
Audio from the network recorded an investigator saying: “The shooter is down. The shooter is down. Can we move? It’s safe, it’s safe.”
As agents tried to remove Trump from the stage at the rally, he said, “Let me get my shoes. Let me get my shoes.” Agents can also be heard telling Trump, “We’ve got you. Hold on. Your head is bloody. We need to move.”
“Wait, wait,” Trump replied, then pumped his fist and mouthed “Fight, fight, fight.”
And the rally crowd responded by chanting “USA! USA! USA!”
Agents then took Trump to a secluded location, where video showed him with blood on his ear.
Local District Attorney Richard Goldlinger told CNN that one thing investigators “have to answer” in the attack is how the gunman got close enough to Trump to point a gun at him and fire repeatedly.
The most vivid early accounts of the shooting came from Trump supporters who were outside the rally but within earshot of the former president’s campaign speech, and who said they saw a man with a rifle climb onto the roof of a nearby building.
The man said he tried to draw police in the area to “a man on a roof with a rifle,” but police did not respond, and within minutes the man fired several shots at Trump.
At that point, a Secret Service agent shot the attacker, “blowing his head off,” the man told the BBC.
Joe Biden, who spoke with Trump after the shooting, said he was grateful to hear that the president was “safe and well.” The president also called for broad condemnation of political violence.
“Trump’s rally should have been peaceful,” Biden said. “It was simply inappropriate.”
Biden arrived at the White House early Sunday morning, cutting short a weekend trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
The White House said it would be briefed by the Department of Homeland Security and law enforcement officials later in the morning about the assassination attempt on Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris was also scheduled to attend.
