Trump shooting: Thomas Matthew Crooks revealed as shooter, FBI confirm ‘attempted assassination’

Key Points

Donald Trump’s spokesman says he is doing “fine” after shots were fired at his campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
The former US president was treated at a medical facility after appearing with a bloodied ear on stage.
Two people who attended the rally are dead, including the shooter, US media is reporting.

A 20-year-old Pennsylvania man is the suspected shooter behind an “assassination attempt,” on Donald Trump, the FBI has confirmed.

The shooter was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks.

The US Secret Service confirmed Crooks, who fired multiple shots at the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was killed at the event.

A man with a bleeding ear gets carried away by three others

Donald Trump was bundled into a car by Secret Service agents after the shooting at his campaign rally. Source: AAP

Special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office Kevin Rojek said authorities had not yet identified a motive.

“This evening, we had what we’re calling an assassination attempt against our former president Donald Trump. It’s still an active crime scene,” Rojek said at a press conference.

A rally attendee died and two were critically injured in the incident, the FBI said.

Trump was seen with blood on his right ear surrounded by security agents on stage, moments after shots were heard at the rally on Sunday (AEST). The agents then rushed him off the stage as he pumped his fist in the air to a crowd.

Trump later said he was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of his 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,” he said in a post on social media.

After leaving a medical facility for treatment for his injuries, Trump was later seen disembarking from a plane with a heavy security detail.

What do we know about the shooter?

Crooks’s background is still unknown.

Records show the 20 year-old was registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he gave $US15 to a progressive political action committee in 2021, the day President Joe Biden was sworn in to office, Associated Press reports.

Rojek said investigators were working “tirelessly” to uncover the motive.

The Secret Service said the shooter fired shots from an elevated position outside the rally venue.

Secret Service tend to republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump onstage. Credit: Getty Images

Law enforcement recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene, according to Associated Press.

The BBC interviewed a man who described himself as an eyewitness, saying he saw a man armed with a rifle crawling up a roof near the event. The person told the BBC he and the people he was with started pointing at the man, trying to alert security.

Who is investigating the Trump rally shooting?

The incident is being treated as an attempted assassination, said the FBI, which is the lead agency on the investigation.

Republican US House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House will also conduct a full investigation of the attack, adding: “The American people deserve to know the truth”.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is helped off the stage at his campaign event. Source: AP / Gene J Puskar/AP

Joe Biden says ‘no place for this violence’ after Trump shooting

US President Joe Biden said he had been briefed on the shooting and it appeared Trump was doing well and he was hoping to speak to his rival.

“There’s no place for violence in this country. It’s sick,” he said at a press conference.

“It is one of the reasons we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening, we cannot be like this, we cannot condone this.

Biden said the Trump rally “should have been able to be conducted peacefully without any problem. But the idea … that there is political violence or violence like this in America is just unheard of. It is inappropriate. Everybody must condemn it.”

Witnesses described the incident saying many people went down to the ground amid confusion about what was happening.

Donald Trump raises his fist in the air while held by secret service agents. Source: AAP

“I heard the shots, it sounded like between firecrackers and a small calibre handgun,” said John Yeykal from Franklin, Pennsylvania, who was attending his first Trump rally.

A statement from the Trump campaign said the former president was doing well after the incident and ‘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.”

World leaders condemn ‘political violence’

, including some of Trump’s critical and rivals, to condemn the apparent shooting.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the incident was “concerning and confronting.”

French President Emmanuel Macron described the incident as “a tragedy for our democracies”.

Indian leader Narendra Modi also offered his well wishes.

Former US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said political violence was “absolutely unacceptable” and wished Trump, and others who may have been hurt, a speedy recovery.

US Senator Chuck Schumer in a statement said: “I am horrified by what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania and relieved that former President Trump is safe. Political violence has no place in our country”.

Former president Barack Obama said there was “absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy.”

Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell added: “Tonight, all Americans are grateful that President Trump appears to be fine after a despicable attack on a peaceful rally. Violence has no place in our politics.”

Source link