By Leanne Abraham,June Kim,Elena Shao,Julie Walton Shaver,Anjali Singhvi,Christiaan Triebert,Karen Yourish,Lazaro Gamio and Amy Schoenfeld Walker
The Associated Press; Photograph by Doug Mills/The New York Times
Former President Donald J. Trump was whisked off the stage at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday after gunshots were fired toward the area where he was speaking. Mr. Trump could be seen bleeding from his right ear, and officials said that the shooting was being investigated as an assassination attempt.
Site of Trump rally the morning after shots were fired
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Butler Farm
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Pennsylvania
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Butler Farm
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Location of law
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snipers on roof
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Butler
Pennsylvania
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Butler Farm
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snipers on roof
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Butler
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Location of
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By The New York Times; Aerial image by Doral Chenoweth/USA TODAY NETWORK, via Reuters
The rally took place on the grounds of the Butler Farm Show in western Pennsylvania, about 35 miles north of Pittsburgh. On Saturday afternoon, tens of thousands of rally attendees started trickling in after the doors opened at 1 p.m.
Mr. Trump was set to begin speaking at 5 p.m., but didn’t appear onstage until about an hour later. Here’s how the next 11 minutes unfolded based on footage of the rally.
6:03 p.m. Mr. Trump starts to take the stage, clapping and pointing to the crowd as the song “God Bless the U.S.A.” plays.
Reuters
6:05 p.m. As the song concludes, Mr. Trump approaches the lectern and begins speaking. He spends the first six minutes talking about President Biden and the state of the country before focusing on immigration.
6:11 p.m. Mr. Trump turns to his right and gestures toward a screen with a chart showing statistics on border crossings. He faces north toward a set of bleachers filled with rally attendees. Behind the bleachers is a group of buildings around 400 feet away from the stage.
Eric Lee/The New York Times
Around the same time, several rally attendees notice a man with a gun on the roof of one of the nearby buildings. In a video posted on social media, one attendee can be heard yelling: “He’s on the roof. He’s got a gun!”
TMX via Associated Press
Seconds later A gunshot is heard, and Mr. Trump stops midsentence and flinches. He reaches for his right ear, as another two shots are quickly fired, and ducks behind the lectern. One male Secret Service agent is heard yelling, “Get down, get down, get down, get down!”
A photograph by Doug Mills, a New York Times photographer, appears to capture the image of a bullet streaking past Mr. Trump’s head.
Photo appears to
capture the path
of a projectile
Blood on Trump’s
hand after he
touches his ear
Photo appears
to capture the
path of a projectile
Blood on Trump’s
hand after he
touches his ear
Photos by Doug Mills/The New York Times
Secret Service agents surround Mr. Trump as a burst of five more shots is fired. Members of the crowd are panicking, screaming and crouching down. More security personnel run onto the stage, including several heavily armed law enforcement agents.
About 42 seconds after shooting began Agents stay crouched over Mr. Trump until an agent can be heard saying, “Shooter down.” The Secret Service confirmed later in a statement that its “personnel neutralized the shooter.”
The crowd claps and cheers as agents help Mr. Trump stand up. When he gets up, streaks of blood are visible on his right ear and across his face. His security begins to usher him toward the stairs, but before leaving the stage Mr. Trump pauses and raises his fist, pumping it in the air and appearing to mouth the words “Fight! Fight! Fight!” The crowd breaks into a chant of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”
Doug Mills/The New York Times
Two minutes after the shooting After agents escort Mr. Trump off the stage, he pumps his fist in the air one last time before he is led into a black S.U.V.
Eric Lee/The New York Times
A spectator who had been standing just outside the grounds said in an interview with the BBC that a few minutes into Mr. Trump’s speech, he noticed that someone was “bear-crawling up the roof,” clearly armed with a rifle, and that he tried to notify the police. Law enforcement officials later said that the gunman had opened fire from an elevated position outside the rally’s security perimeter.
After the shooting, the gunman’s body was seen on the rooftop of one of the buildings to Mr. Trump’s right. An AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle was recovered at the scene, according to law enforcement officials.
“I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform. “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.”
Shortly after the shooting, a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s campaign said that the former president was “fine.” Mr. Trump will still attend the Republican National Convention this week, his advisers said in a statement.
One spectator at the rally, Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter, was shot and killed. Two others were critically injured.
Scenes from after the shooting
Photographs by Eric Lee and Doug Mills/The New York Times
