2024-07-15 21:31:25
Donald Trump stood at a lectern in the town of Butler, Pennsylvania and began to speak to the gathered supporters. Then shots rang out, some witnesses say four.
Trump clutched his right ear with his right hand and fell to his knees. He was surrounded by members of the security forces and wanted to immediately take him off the stage. According to witnesses, the presidential candidate told them “Wait” and extended his hand with a clenched fist. “Fight!” he yelled from his ear, blood running down his face.
Then men in suits, dark glasses and an earpiece surrounded him, one shielding him towards the crowd with his body. They loaded Trump into a van that drove away. The politician was hit by a gunman in the upper part of the ear, but the presidential candidate himself confirmed that the injury was not serious.
“We were a few millimeters away from a national disaster,” former US intelligence official Jonathan Wackrow told CNN. According to him, the investigators must find out how it is possible that the shooter could have fired at Trump without being noticed. Trump’s security is provided by special agents, every former American president is entitled to this, for the rest of his life.
They are United States Secret Service personnel. This service falls under the Ministry of Internal Security, i.e. similar to our Ministry of the Interior, and its task is to protect the highest representatives of the state and the critical infrastructure of the country. From 2022, the service will be headed by Kimberly Cheatle, who has already been invited to give an explanation by the Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the House of Representatives. “Many questions have been raised and the American people are demanding answers,” said committee chairman James Comer.
Members of the Secret Service shot the 20-year-old attacker. Another person was killed and two others were injured in the incident. Those people were also apparently hit by the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Republican Party member Thomas Matthew Crooks. According to witnesses, he fired an AR-15 automatic rifle.
One attendee told the BBC he saw a man climbing onto the roof. He was pointing at him and trying to draw attention to him. But the claim cannot be verified. Anyway, Crooks was shooting from places where the agents were no longer providing security. Probably from a distance of 130 meters from the stage. In similar events, it is usual for agents to inspect the surroundings in advance and pick out possible risky places.
Trump praised the speed of the Secret Service men who responded and surrounded him. “I knew right away that something was wrong because I heard a whooshing sound, gunshots, and immediately I felt a bullet go through my skin. It was bleeding a lot, so that’s when I realized what was going on. God bless America,” he wrote on the social network.
Video: Shooting at Donald Trump
Shots were fired at Trump’s campaign rally. The ex-president has an injured ear, two people died | Video: Reuters