We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
IT HAS BEEN less than two days since a gunman opened fire at a rally in Pennsylvania in an attempt to assassinate Donald Trump.
Several shots were fired towards the former US president before he was rushed off stage by Secret Service agents bleeding from his ear.
The FBI is continuing to investigate the motive of the gunman, who has been named as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, and how he was able to carry out the attack.
This is everything we know so far.
Trump was addressing a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday. He was speaking about immigration when bangs started ringing out after 6.10pm local time (11.10pm Irish time).
“Take a look at what happened,” he said before the first shot was heard. The former US president reached with his right hand towards the side of his head as two more shots were fired.
Shouts of “get down” could then be heard and Trump quickly ducked as Secret Service agents rushed the stage to surround him. Screams could be heard from those attending the rally as the bangs continued.
The crowd cheered as Trump got back to his feet. He pumped his fist in the air and chanted “fight, fight, fight” and there were chants of “USA, USA” before he was taken to his motorcade.
Police evacuated the site shortly after Trump left the stage.
Authorities later confirmed that one rally attendee was killed and two other spectators were critically injured.
The man who was killed has been named as Corey Comperatore. The 50-year-old was a father of two daughters and a firefighter.
Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro said: “Corey died a hero. Corey dove on his family to protect them last night.”
Pennsylvania State Police identified the two men injured in the shooting as 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaver. Both men are from Pennsylvania, and both are in a stable condition in hospital.
The FBI has identified the gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park in Pennsylvania, around 70 kilometres away from the site of the assassination attempt. He was shot dead at the scene.
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022. The captain of the school’s rifle team has said he tried to join, but was refused because he was a bad shot.
Another student said that Crooks was bullied at school and sat alone at lunch time. He said that other students mocked him for the clothes he wore, which included hunting outfits.
According to The New York Times, the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, a facility in southern Pittsburgh that features a 200-yard rifle range, has confirmed that Crooks was a member.
Crooks worked at a nursing home as a dietary aide, a job that generally involves food preparation.
Records show Crooks was registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he gave money to a progressive political action committee on 20 January 2021, the day President Joe Biden was sworn into office.
The FBI has not yet identified a motive for the shooting.
US media who attended a news conference on Sunday reported that Special Agent Kevin Rojek said the FBI recovered an “AR-style 556 rifle which was purchased legally”.
It was located at the scene, immediately adjacent to the gunman, he said.
The FBI said it believes Crooks’s father legally purchased the weapon used in the shooting, but it is not yet known how he accessed the weapon and whether he took it without his father’s knowledge.
A “suspicious device” was also found in the gunman’s car during a search of his vehicle. This was inspected by bomb technicians and made safe. All of the evidence is now being analysed.
The shooting is also being investigated as potential domestic terrorism.
The Associated Press (AP) has reported that a local police officer used a ladder to climb to the roof where Crooks was after being alerted to his position by attendees at the rally.
Officers who spoke to the publication on the condition of anonymity said Crooks then pointed his gun at the officer, who retreated down the ladder. Crooks then quickly took a shot toward Trump, and was then shot by the Secret Service.
Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told the AP that a local officer climbed to the roof and encountered Crooks, who turned toward him just before the officer dropped down to safety. Slupe said the officer couldn’t have wielded his own gun under the circumstances.
Meanwhile, Anthony Guglielmi, communications officer for the US Secret Service, has denied claims that Trump’s team “requested additional security resources and that those were rebuffed”.
“This is absolutely false,” said Guglielmi, who added that the Secret Service “added protective resources and technology and capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo”.
In the aftermath, Trump’s campaign said the former presidenr was doing “fine” after the shooting, which he said pierced the upper part of his 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,” Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social.
His campaign is expected to resume in earnest at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which begins today.
Trump told the Washington Examiner that he had rewritten his speech for the event to focus more on national unity than on the policies of Biden.
However, there is some confusion as to whether Trump was grazed by a bullet or if his ear was cut by a shard of glass from a bullet smashing a teleprompter.
For example, a correspondent for right-wing US outlet NewsMax said that sources within the Pennsylvania police understood that Trump “was not struck by a bullet but hit by glass fragments”.
NEW: A Pennsylvania police source tells @NEWSMAX they believe Pres. Trump was not struck by a bullet, but hit by glass fragments.
— Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) July 13, 2024
They believe a teleprompter may have been hit, causing glass to hit the president.
“They believe a teleprompter may have been hit, causing glass to hit the president,” said Alex Salvi in a post on X.
If it were indeed a bullet that struck Trump, a very slight head movement saved him from what could have been a fatal incident.
There was a giant chart at the rally documenting illegal immigration figures into the United States.
Trump moved his head towards the chart at the moment the bullet was fired.
The law enforcement snipers were already facing the direction of the shooter seconds prior to the shooting.
— Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) July 14, 2024
I am amazed they did not see the shooter crawling into position for his shots a mere 430 ft away. pic.twitter.com/oXJlWfWOMa
Republican representative for Texas Ronny Jackson spoke to The New York Times about a conversation he had with Trump following the shooting.
Recalling the conversation, Jackson told The New York Times: “He [Trump] goes, ‘The border patrol saved my life. I was going over that border patrol chart.’
Trump’s campaign manager Dan Scavino also credited this slight head movement towards the chart as the action that saved Trump.
‘Thank God last night’s rally was one in which President Trump wanted to use and reference the jumbotron, causing him to slightly move his head at the moment shots were fired,’ Scavino said yesterday.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say