By Takuya Karube,
Former U.S. President Donald Trump was wounded Saturday in a shooting at a rally in a rural Pennsylvania town, just days before his formal nomination to become the Republican candidate for the White House, with the Secret Service saying he is "safe."
Television footage captured multiple shots ringing out as Trump was speaking about immigration. Secret Service agents quickly shielded him after he crouched down behind his podium, while screams were heard from the crowd. Photos showed blood on his right ear and face.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it is looking into the shooting as an assassination attempt on Trump. The FBI identified the suspected shooter as Thomas Crooks, a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania. He was killed at the scene.
Hours after Trump was escorted off the stage and taken to a nearby medical facility, he said in a post on his Truth Social platform, "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."
The Secret Service said in a statement that shots were fired at around 6:15 p.m. toward the stage from "an elevated position" outside of the venue in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 50 kilometers north of Pittsburgh.
The service said its agents killed the suspect, adding that one rally attendee was dead and two others were critically injured.
TV footage showed the presumed shooter motionless on the rooftop of a nearby building. U.S. media outlets, citing law enforcement officials, said an AR-style rifle was recovered at the scene.
President Joe Biden said in a statement, "I'm grateful to hear that he's safe and doing well. I'm praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information."
"There's no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it," Biden said.
He later spoke with Trump, according to a White House official.
Before leaving the stage escorted by Secret Service agents, Trump, who is aiming to be reelected this fall by defeating Biden, raised his fist in the air multiple times and the crowd chanted "USA, USA."
Pennsylvania is one of the November presidential election's key battleground states.
For months, Biden and Trump have been neck-and-neck in national opinion polls, with the former president very slightly ahead in several of the swing states.
The attack happened ahead of next week's Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where the 78-year-old is due to be formally nominated as the party's presidential candidate.
Trump's campaign said he will take part in the convention, which will begin Monday. He was released from the medical facility and his private jet landed at a New Jersey airport, with a video released by an aide showed him walking down the plane steps unassisted.
Photos of bloodied Trump, pumping his fist with an American flag behind him, have spread fast among his supporters and already been used as something to symbolize his defiance and resiliency. Some U.S. media said these images will be plus for his reelection bid.
Robert Axson, chairman of the Utah Republican Party, who came to Milwaukee for the convention, said, "I think there will be a rally of patriotism that you will see here" in the wake of the attack.
"He is a man of courage and boldness," Axson said, referring to Trump. "I would anticipate that (former) President Trump will very boldly articulate his message and vision for the people of our country and he will not cower or back down from this type of evil."
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