A Visual Timeline of the Trump Rally Shooting – The New York Times https://t.co/CdHXtqvpxP pic.twitter.com/ZoU5ZhhKYQ
— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) July 16, 2024
Day: July 16, 2024
The Associated Press; Photograph by Doug Mills/The New York Times
Former President Donald J. Trump was whisked off the stage at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday after gunshots were fired toward the area where he was speaking. Mr. Trump could be seen bleeding from his right ear, and officials said that the shooting was being investigated as an assassination attempt.
By The New York Times; Aerial image by Doral Chenoweth/USA TODAY NETWORK, via Reuters
The rally took place on the grounds of the Butler Farm Show in western Pennsylvania, about 35 miles north of Pittsburgh. On Saturday afternoon, tens of thousands of rally attendees started trickling in after the doors opened at 1 p.m.
Mr. Trump was set to begin speaking at 5 p.m., but didn’t appear onstage until about an hour later. Here’s how the next 11 minutes unfolded based on footage of the rally.
6:03 p.m. Mr. Trump starts to take the stage, clapping and pointing to the crowd as the song “God Bless the U.S.A.” plays.
6:05 p.m. As the song concludes, Mr. Trump approaches the lectern and begins speaking. He spends the first six minutes talking about President Biden and the state of the country before focusing on immigration.
6:11 p.m. Mr. Trump turns to his right and gestures toward a screen with a chart showing statistics on border crossings. He faces north toward a set of bleachers filled with rally attendees. Behind the bleachers is a group of buildings around 400 feet away from the stage.
Eric Lee/The New York Times
Around the same time, several rally attendees notice a man with a gun on the roof of one of the nearby buildings. In a video posted on social media, one attendee can be heard yelling: “He’s on the roof. He’s got a gun!”
Seconds later A gunshot is heard, and Mr. Trump stops midsentence and flinches. He reaches for his right ear, as another two shots are quickly fired, and ducks behind the lectern. One male Secret Service agent is heard yelling, “Get down, get down, get down, get down!”
A photograph by Doug Mills, a New York Times photographer, appears to capture the image of a bullet streaking past Mr. Trump’s head.
Photos by Doug Mills/The New York Times
Secret Service agents surround Mr. Trump as a burst of five more shots is fired. Members of the crowd are panicking, screaming and crouching down. More security personnel run onto the stage, including several heavily armed law enforcement agents.
About 42 seconds after shooting began Agents stay crouched over Mr. Trump until an agent can be heard saying, “Shooter down.” The Secret Service confirmed later in a statement that its “personnel neutralized the shooter.”
The crowd claps and cheers as agents help Mr. Trump stand up. When he gets up, streaks of blood are visible on his right ear and across his face. His security begins to usher him toward the stairs, but before leaving the stage Mr. Trump pauses and raises his fist, pumping it in the air and appearing to mouth the words “Fight! Fight! Fight!” The crowd breaks into a chant of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”
Doug Mills/The New York Times
Two minutes after the shooting After agents escort Mr. Trump off the stage, he pumps his fist in the air one last time before he is led into a black S.U.V.
Eric Lee/The New York Times
A spectator who had been standing just outside the grounds said in an interview with the BBC that a few minutes into Mr. Trump’s speech, he noticed that someone was “bear-crawling up the roof,” clearly armed with a rifle, and that he tried to notify the police. Law enforcement officials later said that the gunman had opened fire from an elevated position outside the rally’s security perimeter.
After the shooting, the gunman’s body was seen on the rooftop of one of the buildings to Mr. Trump’s right. An AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle was recovered at the scene, according to law enforcement officials.
“I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform. “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.”
Shortly after the shooting, a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s campaign said that the former president was “fine.” Mr. Trump will still attend the Republican National Convention this week, his advisers said in a statement.
One spectator at the rally, Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter, was shot and killed. Two others were critically injured.
Photographs by Eric Lee and Doug Mills/The New York Times
Live Updates: Trump rally shooting investigation continues as new details emerge about assassination attempt https://t.co/0j8V9vB1sq pic.twitter.com/tYTrLXCUVw
— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) July 16, 2024
Live Updates: Trump rally shooting investigation continues as new details emerge about assassination attempt https://t.co/0j8V9vB1sq
— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) July 16, 2024
An investigation is continuing into the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, who appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee Monday night — the first time he has been seen in public since he was shot and injured at his campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
The crowd at the convention cheered Trump, whose ear was bandaged after it was hit by a bullet on Saturday.
Details are emerging about the moments that led up to the shooting. People alerted law enforcement to the gunman on the roof of a building about 410 feet away from the stage at least two minutes before the first shot was fired at Trump, video analyzed by CBS News shows.
A local law enforcement officer with direct knowledge of the incident told CBS News three snipers were stationed inside the building the shooter used in his attack. The operations plan had them stationed inside the building looking out windows toward the rally.
One of the snipers inside saw the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, outside and looking up at the roof, observing the building and disappearing, according to the officer. Crooks came back, sat down and looked at his phone. At that point, one of the snipers took a picture of him. Crooks took out a rangefinder and the sniper radioed to the command post. Crooks disappeared again and then came back a third time with a backpack. The snipers called in with information that he had a backpack and said he was walking toward the back of the building.
Officers believe that Crooks might have used an air conditioning unit to get on top of the roof. By the time other officers came for backup, he had climbed on top of the building and was positioned above and behind the snipers inside the building, the officer said.
Two other officers who heard the sniper’s call tried to get onto the roof. State police started rushing to the scene, but by that time, a Secret Service sniper had already killed Crooks, the officer said.
The FBI is investigating whether the shooter was a politically motivated homegrown domestic violent extremist, and investigators are still combing through his background. Justice Department officials told reporters that investigators have the shooter’s phone and were examining it at the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia.
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Was the Trump assassination attempt STAGED?! #NewsAndTimes #NT #TNT #News #Times#World #USA #POTUS #DOJ #FBI #CIA #DIA #ODNI#Israel #Mossad #Netanyahu#Ukraine #NewAbwehr #OSINT#Putin #Russia #GRU #Путин, #Россия #SouthCaucasus #Bloggers…— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) July 16, 2024
https://t.co/iC4NjI2YNp
FBI: There is a reasonable suspicion that the Trump assassination attempt of 4.13.24 WAS STAGED, and possibly by the foreign actors.
Examine:
1. The nature of Trump’s injury
2. The ballistic aspects of the gunshots
3. Possibility of objects other than… pic.twitter.com/zn1rCLydBr— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) July 16, 2024
‘I don’t know what to say’: Family of Thomas Matthew Crooks struggles to make sense of Trump shooting #Shooting #DonaldTrump #Trumpfamily #FBI #Violentcrimehttps://t.co/SPObTaP2A1
— Linda Berg (@lindajoy54) July 16, 2024
And here we go.#VoteBlueToSaveDemocracy#VoteBlueToStopTheLies#VoteBlueToStopTheStupid
Ex-FBI informant accused of lying about Biden family seeks to dismiss charges, citing decision in Trump documents case #FBI #DonaldTrump #JusticeDepartmenthttps://t.co/IgV0pKoTSi
— Rebecca Blount (@wheresmykeeper) July 16, 2024
https://t.co/o8jhx09Ch4
FBI: TRUMP IS A FRAUD! #NewsAndTimes #NT #TNT #News #Times#World #USA #POTUS #DOJ #FBI #CIA #DIA #ODNI#Israel #Mossad #Netanyahu#Ukraine #NewAbwehr #OSINT#Putin #Russia #GRU #Путин, #Россия #SouthCaucasus #Bloggershttps://t.co/O0SIgLVWzM… https://t.co/0SJseNjncO— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) July 16, 2024