Donald Trump said he was shot in his right ear during the horrific assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally and knew something was wrong when he heard a ‘whizzing’ sound.
The former president said he immediately felt the bullet ‘ripping through my skin’ in a statement from hospital just hours after the terrifying scene unfolded.
The 78-year-old was dragged off stage by Secret Service with blood covering his face and then pumped his fist and shouted ‘fight, fight, fight’ after gunfire rang out in front of thousands of MAGA fans.
The gunman and a member of the crowd were killed and two others were taken to hospital in a critical condition after the shooting at 6.15pm on Saturday night.
The suspect fired at least eight shots from outside the security perimeter of the rally after witnesses said they say a man with a rifle bear crawling on a roof.
‘I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my 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, so I realized then what was happening,’ the former president wrote on his Truth Social account.
Donald Trump said he was shot in the right ear at his rally
Trump was rushed to a hospital but later released.
His campaign said he will still attend the Republican National Convention, which begins on Monday in Milwaukee. There Trump will formally be nominated as the GOP presidential nominee.
In the wake of the shooting, photos show the former president clutching his ear as the shots rang out. Blood was seen trickling down his face and from his ear.
The shots rang out shortly after Trump started to address the crowd in the critical battleground state.
In the moments after the shooting, voices could be heard screaming as Secret Service agents pushed Trump to the floor and covered him.
Seconds later, the blood-covered lawmaker pumped his fist in the air to indicate that he was fine, while surrounded by Secret Service agents, before being led away.
In his statement, Trump thanked the Secret Service and extended his condolences to the family of the person who was killed at the rally.
As a former president, Trump has 24/7 Secret Service protection.
The shooter who fired at least eight shots at Trump and injured him is dead, with a rallygoer also killed in Saturday’s appalling bloodbath.
‘I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead,’ Trump said.
Officials said the incident was being investigated as an assassination attempt.
Trump was mid-sentence, saying ‘Take a look at what happened’ when the shots began to ring out shortly before 6pm ET, with terrified screams filling the air as he and onlookers dived to the ground.
An extraordinary photo shows Donald Trump on the ground at Butler Show Grounds in Pennsylvania Saturday after he was injured in a shooting that left two people dead
Donald Trump is seen with his fist in the air under a Stars and Stripes flag after Saturday’s shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the president was injured, with the shooter and a bystander both killed
Bystanders are seen in the aftermath of the shooting. The man in the blood-splattered white t-shirt is an ER physician who told CBS News that he tried to help a bystander killed in the shooting. The dead bystander was on the ground just behind the man in blood-stained white
Dramatic footage that has swept the world showed popping sounds ring out as the 2024 presidential hopeful was on stage addressing a large crowd of supporters.
Trump could be seen ducking as screams rang out and fans in MAGA t-shirts stood behind him threw themselves to the ground.
Secret Service agents rushed the stage to cover the president. They eventually led him off stage and into his motorcade.
As they did Trump pumped his fist in the air and appeared to mouth the word ‘Fight’ twice his crowd of supporters, prompting loud cheers and then chants of ‘USA. USA. USA.’
Trump could also be heard repeatedly asking: ‘Let me get my shoes.’
It took two minutes from the moment of the first shot for Trump to be placed in a waiting SUV.
The attack, by a shooter who law enforcement officials say was then killed by the Secret Service, was the first attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
The Secret Service’s counter sniper team took out the shooter – who they said was outside the perimeter of the show grounds, several hundred yards away from the stage.
A witness told the BBC that agents blew the shooter’s head off.
The witness was asked if he saw what happened to the shooter, the man said: ‘Oh yeah. They blew his head off. Secret service blew his head off.’
When asked if he was sure he was shot, he replied: ‘Absolutely, 100 per cent, yep.’
He then described how he saw the Secret Service climb onto the roof after the shooter had been killed, with images from social media appearing to show his version of events.
The man said the shooter was wearing tan clothes and holding a rifle, but he was not able to make out which type.
He said: ‘We noticed a guy crawling, you know army, bear crawling up the roof of the building 50ft away from us.
‘So we are standing there pointing at the guy crawling up the roof, he had a rifle, we could clearly see he had a rifle.’
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told reporters the shooter is dead and that a bystander had also been killed in the bloodbath.
Goldinger said he was told by detectives that the gunman was on the roof of a building adjacent to the event, and said the shooting ‘would have required a rifle’ as it ‘was several hundred yards’ away.
The identities of the shooter and the dead bystander have not yet been confirmed.
Law enforcement recovered AR-style rifle at scene of Trump rally shooting, a source told the Associated Press.
Blood is seen coming from Donald Trump’s ear, where he said he was shot
A Donald Trump supporter has described the moment the would-be former president’s assassin was killed by secret service agents in a BBC interview
The site of the Trump rally in Butler County Show Grounds is pictured before Trump came on stage. The president spoke on the stage just below the hoisted American flag with a crowd standing behind him.
Trump is covered by U.S. Secret Service agents
President Biden is seen addressing reporters after Saturday’s shooting – he branded the incident ‘sick’ and said he was ‘grateful’ to hear that the former president was ‘safe and doing well’
Trump’s allies and Democratic foes alike denounced the incident.
President Joe Biden said there was no place for ‘sick’ political violence in America and said he was grateful that Trump was safe.
‘There’s no place in America this kind of violence. It’s sick. It’s sick,’ he said.
‘It’s one of the reasons we have to unite this country.’
The president said he was trying to reach Trump.
Former President Barack Obama has also condemned the shooting, saying: ‘There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy.
‘Although we don’t yet know exactly what happened, we should all be relieved that former President Trump wasn’t seriously hurt, and use this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in our politics.
‘Michelle and I are wishing him a quick recovery.’
