The FBI is still trying to determine a motive behind Saturday’s attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump, while the tone of this week’s Republican convention in Milwaukee likely will be dominated by the violence.
The FBI is still trying to determine a motive behind Saturday’s attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump, while the tone of this week’s Republican convention in Milwaukee likely will be dominated by the violence.
A former fire chief who was killed at Trump’s Pennsylvania rally is being remembered as a “man of conviction.»
The shooting left Trump and two other men wounded. The 20-year-old who authorities say carried out the attack is believed to have acted alone with his father’s gun.
Here’s a look at what we know so far about the attempt on Trump’s life and its aftermath:
Officials say Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania — about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the shooting — came to law enforcement’s attention when spectators at the Trump rally noticed him acting strangely outside the event.
Police had a report of a suspicious man pacing near the magnetometers and were apparently exchanging photos of the suspect. Witnesses pointed and shouted at an armed man on a nearby roof.
When a police officer climbed up to the roof to investigate, the gunman turned and pointed his rifle at him. But the officer did not — or could not — fire a single shot. A sniper cut down Crooks within seconds of him firing an AR-style rifle toward the former president, but it was too late.
Trump was showing off a chart of border crossing numbers when the gunfire began.
As the first pop went off Trump said, “Oh,” then raised his hand to his right ear and looked at it before quickly crouching to the ground behind his lectern.
Someone could be heard near the microphone saying, “Get down, get down, get down, get down!” as agents rushed to the stage. They piled atop the former president to shield him with their bodies as other agents took up positions on stage to search for the threat.
Trump later said the upper part of his right ear was pierced by a bullet. His aides said he was in “great spirits” and doing well. He arrived in Milwaukee on Sunday evening for the convention, which began Monday.
Meanwhile, investigators are trying to painstakingly piece together how an armed man with no military background managed to reach high ground and get the jump on teams of Secret Service agents.
