Former President Donald Trump was injured during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday in an incident that is being investigated as an assassination attempt.
In a statement, the Secret Service said a suspected gunman fired shots toward the stage from an “elevated position” outside the venue where Trump was holding a rally.
An FBI representative confirmed to Business Insider early Sunday morning that the suspect in the shooting is Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
FBI spokesman Kevin Rojek said at a press conference just after midnight Sunday that the FBI is treating the incident as an attempted assassination of the former president.
One bystander was killed and two others seriously injured in the shooting, according to the Secret Service, which said its agents shot and killed the gunman.
The victim killed at the rally was identified as Corey Comperatore, 50, a former fire chief with the Buffalo Township Fire Department in Pennsylvania.
In a Truth Social message posted hours after the shooting, Trump thanked “the Secret Service and all law enforcement agencies for their swift response to the shooting that occurred in Butler, Pennsylvania.”
“First and foremost, I would like to express my condolences to the family of the person who died at the rally, as well as the family of the other person who was seriously injured. It is unbelievable that something like this could happen in our country. At this time, we do not know anything about the shooter who died.”
Trump wrote that he was shot with a “bullet that penetrated the top of his right ear.”
“I knew right away something was wrong as I heard the whoosh and the gunshot and felt the bullets going through my skin,” Trump wrote. “I was bleeding profusely and that's when I realized what was happening. God Bless America!”
A spokesman for Trump called the shooting a “heinous act” but said the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee was “OK.”
NBC News correspondent Darren Botelho reported that after the incident, a security guard at the event could be heard saying, “The shooter is down.”
Republican Senate candidate David McCormick of Pennsylvania was sitting in the front row at the rally and told Politico that he saw someone in the crowd behind him appear to have been shot.
“All of a sudden, gunfire started and it looked like someone behind me had been shot,” McCormick told Politico. “There was a lot of blood and the Secret Service surrounded President Trump.”
Politicians from all ideologies condemned the political violence and wished President Trump a speedy recovery.
Following the shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, House Speaker Mike Johnson called on both parties to “de-escalate.” Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images
In a statement released after the shooting, President Joe Biden said he was “grateful” to hear that Trump was safe and well.
“As we await more information, we are praying for him, his family and all those who were at the rally,” Biden continued in the statement. “Jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for evacuating him to safety. This kind of violence has no place in America, and we must come together as a country to condemn it.”
Biden later addressed the nation, calling the shootings “horrible” and calling on Americans to end political violence.
“This is one of the reasons we have to unite our country,” Biden said. “We can't allow this to happen. It shouldn't be like this. It's unacceptable.”
Biden's campaign later announced it was pulling its TV ads in response to the shooting, adding that the president spoke directly with Trump on Saturday and had a “brief but meaningful conversation” with the former president afterward.
Biden is scheduled to address the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday evening.
In a post on X, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana vowed that the House would investigate the “tragic events” that took place at the rally.
“The American people have a right to know the truth,” Johnson wrote. “We will promptly have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and appropriate officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation appear at a committee hearing.”
Appearing on NBC's “Today” show on Sunday, Johnson spoke out about the shooting, condemning political violence and calling on leaders to “tamp down the abuse” in the United States.
“If we are to move forward and maintain the free society that we all enjoy, we need leaders of all parties on both sides of the aisle to call for this and make sure it gets done,” he said.
The Republican National Convention is set to begin this week in Milwaukee, and Republicans have focused on the event in recent days as a promotional tool for the party. So far, Trump has not changed his plans to attend the convention.
But with less than four months to go until the general election, the shooting threatens to upend an already chaotic presidential race.
