2024-07-14 10:50:07
This is what we know about the attempted assassination of the former President of the United States Donald Trump, who was shot in the ear on Saturday during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania (North-East of the United States).
• Also read: Assassination attempt against Trump: shooter identified by the FBI
• Also read: “Everybody has to condemn this,” Biden responded in his speech after shooting at a Trump rally
• Also read: Trump leaves injured after shooting one person dead at campaign rally
The 78-year-old former president then held his last meeting before the Republican convention that starts on Monday in Milwaukee (Wisconsin), and at the end he must be officially named as the candidate of the Republican Party for the presidential election in next November.
The story of the shooting
In a white shirt and dark blazer, a red cap with the “MAGA” logo on his head, Donald Trump denounces illegal immigration when shots rang out at 6:08 local time.
“Look what just happened…” he said, before being interrupted by a quick succession of four shots.
Donald Trump puts his hand to his right ear, shouting “Down!”, before the fifth and sixth shot.
The former president cowers behind his desk, and members of the secret services rush around him and fear erupts from the audience.
More shots are fired, members of the public throw themselves to the ground and other officers go to the scene.
Seven seconds after the first shots, a final one rang out.
After a quick exchange of instructions, secret service agents help the unkempt-haired ex-president to his feet.
“Let me take my shoes with you,” he says, as security forces circle him.
With a bloody face, he raises his fist towards the crowd, who respond with cheers.
Barely two minutes after the shooting began, he was led off the stage, cap in hand, before getting into a large black vehicle.
Trump says he “felt the bullet”
Donald Trump first reported the shooting at 8:42 pm on his social network Truth Social.
“I was hit by a bullet that pierced the top of my right ear,” he wrote.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong because I heard a whistle, gunshots, and I immediately felt the bullet tearing the skin,” he detailed.
A few hours later, he was seen getting off his plane unaided, according to a video posted on social media by his deputy director of communications.
His campaign team confirmed on Saturday evening that the former president planned to attend the Republican convention after undergoing a medical examination at the hospital as a precaution.
For its part, the White House indicated that Joe Biden, who must face Donald Trump in the November election, was informed of the incident at 6:50 p.m.
“There is no place for this kind of violence in America,” said the president in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (East), where he was for the weekend.
Shortly before 10:30pm, his office revealed that he had spoken with Donald Trump and was returning to the White House.
The shooter was killed and identified
The FBI identified the suspected shooter, who was shot dead, as “Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania,” according to US media.
A video, published by the site TMZ, which specializes in celebrity news, shows the shooter lying on his stomach on the roof of a building while holding a rifle.
“The man has long brown hair and appears to be wearing a gray shirt and khaki pants. As you can see he tries to carefully aim at a target far away before shooting,” said TMZ.
At a press conference Saturday evening, the FBI confirmed that the shooting was an “attempted attack.”
The US Secret Service said in a statement that the suspected shooter “had fired several shots towards the scene from an elevated position (located) outside the meeting” before the agents “neutralized” him.
Unverified footage shows the body of the alleged attacker lying on the sloping roof of a low-rise building from which he fired.
Multiple witnesses said they saw the shooter before the shooting and alerted Butler police who said they were “responding to several reports of suspicious activity,” without elaborating.
According to American media, the shooter was armed with an AR15 semi-automatic rifle.
One dead, two seriously injured
One participant in the meeting was killed and two others were seriously injured, all adult men, according to the police.
Two witnesses told American media that they saw a man fatally injured in the head.
“The man behind me was shot in the head, he died instantly and (…) it seemed that a woman was hit in the bladder and the arm,” asked a man identified only by the first name of Joseph on the NBC News channel .
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