Trump ‘felt the bullet ripping through the skin’ during apparent assassination attempt

Former President Donald Trump survived an apparent assassination attempt at a western Pennsylvania campaign rally on Saturday night that killed one attendee and seriously injured two others.

Trump said he was shot in the ear, and he was treated at a hospital nearby before being released and leaving the state Saturday night. Officials said the suspected shooter was dead.

The FBI identified the suspected gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, in a statement early Sunday morning.

Law enforcement officials said at a press conference late Saturday night that they had not yet identified a motive for the attack, and the investigation was ongoing.

“This evening we had what we are calling an assassination attempt against our former president, Donald Trump. It is still an active crime scene," Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, said at the news conference.

The chaos in Butler, Pennsylvania, began around 6:15 p.m., when multiple shots rang out at the rally.

Trump was in the first minutes of his campaign speech talking about immigration and border crossings, when he turned towards a large screen to share a chart with the crowd. That’s the moment when three pops sounded out. Trump touched his right ear and quickly lowered himself to the ground as secret service agents called for him to “get down.”

“I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear," the former president said in a social media post . "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.”

Within seconds, agents laid across Trump with their bodies to protect him as screams from the crowd were punctuated by shots that continued to ring out.

Trump remained on the ground for about a minute, surrounded, until a voice could be heard telling the former president and his protection, “shooter is down.”

When he stood back up, supported by agents, he appeared injured, with blood streaking red from his ear across his cheek.

Agents rushed him off the stage. But first he could be heard over the microphone at his podium saying, “let me get my shoes.”

Then he said, “wait, wait, wait.”

And in a dramatic moment, Trump paused to pump his fist and yell “fight, fight,” to a cheering crowd chanting “USA! USA!” Trump was then quickly ushered into an SUV and taken to a nearby hospital.

Photos of that fist pump were quickly amplified by Republican allies on social media.

“I saw the man standing on his own two feet and stick his fist up in the air,” said Jondavid Longo, the Republican mayor of Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, who attended the rally. “And, you know, he’s tough. He’s tough guy.”

In his post, Trump thanked law enforcement for quickly responding to the shooting and expressed his condolences to the family of the dead and wounded rally-goers.

“It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country,” he wrote .

The attack on Trump — both a former president and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee — prompted a massive mobilization of law enforcement, with the FBI leading the investigation.

Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement that a suspect had fired “toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue.” Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger similarly said on CNN that the suspected shooter "was outside the grounds."

Attendees described a chaotic scene as law enforcement rushed to protect the former president and confusion broke out as people attempted to figure out what was going on and tried to help victims.

“All the sudden shots started to crack, someone behind me appears to have been shot,” said Dave McCormick, the Republican nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania, who was in the front row at the rally. “There’s lots of blood, and then the Secret Service were all over President Trump."

Officials did not release the identities of the shooting victims Saturday night.

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) said his nephew was among them. The nephew was in the "line of fire" behind Trump, Jackson told Fox News on Saturday night, and was grazed in the neck: “A bullet crossed his neck, and he was bleeding.”

Leaders from across the political spectrum quickly condemned political violence in the wake of the attack.

"There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it," President Joe Biden said in a statement. He later spoke on camera briefly: “Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick.”

The White House said Saturday night that Biden had spoken with Trump and been briefed by law enforcement.

Donald Trump Jr. said in a statement that the former president "is in great spirits," and Trump's daughter, Ivanka, thanked the public in a social media post for the "love and prayers for my father and for the other victims of today's senseless violence."

The campaign sent out a statement reiterating that the former president "looks forward to joining you all in Milwaukee" at the Republican National Convention, slated to start on Monday.

Jared Mitovich contributed reporting.