Eyewitnesses at a rally for former President Donald Trump described a chaotic scene on saturday as he was rushed from the scene with blood visible on his face after shots were fired.
The Secret Service released a statement saying Trump is safe, while the campaign said the former president is “doing well.” Trump said in a social media post that a The bullet hit his right ear.
THE the shooter is dead Police shot a spectator who was killed and two others were seriously injured, police sources said.
In a statement released early Sunday morning, the FBI identified the shooter like Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, located just outside Pittsburgh.
Reporters at the scene in Butler, Pennsylvania, heard between eight and 10 pops, prompting rally-goers and others to run for cover. Secret Service agents immediately surrounded the former president, and blood was visible on the bleachers to the left of where Trump was standing.
Gene J. Puskar/AP
An eyewitness told reporters he heard the former president say “I have to get my shoes” to Secret Service agents as he was escorted off stage. Trump was whisked away in a motorcade and could be seen raising his fist as he got into the vehicle.
Another eyewitness, an emergency room doctor, said he saw a man who had been shot in the head.
“I heard gunshots. I thought they were firecrackers at first. Someone over there was shouting ‘he’s been hit, he’s been hit,’ so I went towards him,” the doctor, whose shirt was stained with blood, told reporters.
Ben Macer, a rally attendee, told CBS Pittsburgh that he saw The suspect “moved from roof to roof” and told an officer that the shooter “was on the roof.”
“When I turned around to go back to where I was, that’s when the gunshots started, and then it was chaos, and we all ran away, and that was it,” Macer said.
Evan Vucci / AP
After the incident, security tape was quickly set up to the left of where Trump was standing. Rally attendees were escorted out of the area. Witnesses saw a helicopter land a few minutes later.
David McCormick, the Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania who sat in the front row at Saturday’s rally, told CBS News he couldn’t determine where the gunfire came from or whether Trump was directly hit.
“This was clearly an attack on his life,” McCormick said.
Scott MacFarlane
