Editor’s note, July 14, 5:30 pm ET: This is a rapidly evolving news story that will be updated with new verified information.
Who shot Trump? What we know about the assassination attempt.
This is what happened at the Butler rally, as we understand it right now.
On Saturday, July 13, gunshots rang out as former President Donald Trump addressed a crowd at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Shortly after, Secret Service agents rushed the stage, and Trump was escorted off — his face smeared with blood.
Two people were killed, including the shooter — identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year old from Pennsylvania. Two other rally attendees were critically injured. Trump survived — he wrote afterward on Truth Social that a bullet had pierced his upper right ear, and his campaign said he was “fine.”
Amid rampant rumor and speculation, here are the facts as we know them right now — and what we still need to learn to fully understand what happened at the rally.
What we know
- The moment of the shooting was televised live and filmed by various people in attendance: a burst of three shots was followed by a burst of five shots. Trump is seen touching his ear and then with blood on his face; he was quickly swarmed by Secret Service agents and soon escorted offstage. Here is what TV viewers saw and heard.
- The shots from an AR-style rifle were fired at 6:15 pm from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue,” after which the Secret Service shot and killed the gunman, per statements from the agency. Videos show what appears to be the gunman’s body on a nearby rooftop.
- One person attending the Trump rally was killed and two others were critically injured. On Sunday afternoon, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro identified the rally attendee who was killed as Corey Comperatore, a father of two whom local news sources identified as a former fire chief.
- Trump himself was brought to a local hospital afterward to be examined, but he was released late Saturday.
- Hours after the shooting, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had been “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. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
- The FBI identified the shooter in a statement as a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man, Thomas Matthew Crooks, from Bethel Park, a Pennsylvania town about an hour away from the rally site. Crooks had registered to vote as a Republican, though FEC records show a $15 donation under his name on January 20, 2021, to the Progressive Turnout Project, which supports Democratic voter turnout.
- Multiple major news outlets have reported that Crooks was in possession of explosive devices, citing anonymous law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.
- President Joe Biden briefly addressed the nation Saturday night, stating, “There’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick. … We cannot condone this.” The Biden presidential campaign has temporarily pulled advertising in the wake of the shooting, and Biden spoke with Trump on Saturday night, although details about that call have not been made public.
- Biden also said Sunday afternoon that he has ordered a full Secret Service review of security plans for Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this week. At a press conference Sunday, the Secret Service said they did not believe the plans already in place for the RNC need to be altered.
- Biden plans to address the nation again on Sunday night from the Oval Office.
- Although information on the shooter’s motive isn’t yet known, several of Trump’s political allies immediately tried to blame Democrats and the media, arguing that their criticism of Trump must have spurred the violence. “This was an assassination attempt aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media incessantly calling Trump a threat to democracy,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) wrote.
What we don’t know
- We do not know the shooter’s motive.
- The identities of the other two injured audience members at the rally have not been released to the public.
- Though the Secret Service official overseeing RNC security addressed the public on Sunday, the agency has not yet commented on why their security measures failed to prevent the shooter from having a clear shot at the former president from a nearby rooftop.
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