KEY POINTS
- Donald Trump’s spokesman says he is doing “fine” after shots were fired at his campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
- The former US president was treated at a medical facility after appearing with a bloodied ear on stage.
- Two people who attended the rally are dead, including the shooter, US media is reporting.
A 20-year-old Pennsylvania man is the suspected shooter behind an “assassination attempt,” on Donald Trump, the FBI has confirmed.
The shooter was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office Kevin Rojek said authorities had not yet identified a motive.
“This evening, we had what we’re calling an assassination attempt against our former president Donald Trump. It’s still an active crime scene,” Rojek said at a press conference.
A rally attendee died and two were critically injured in the incident, the FBI said.
Trump was seen with blood on his right ear surrounded by security agents on stage, moments after shots were heard at the rally on Sunday (AEST). The agents then rushed him off the stage as he pumped his fist in the air to a crowd.
Trump later said he was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of his 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,” he said in a post on social media.
What do we know about the shooter?
Crooks’s background is still unknown.
Rojek said investigators were working “tirelessly” to uncover the motive.
Law enforcement recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene, according to Associated Press.
Who is investigating the Trump rally shooting?
The incident is being treated as an attempted assassination, said the FBI, which is the lead agency on the investigation.
Joe Biden says ‘no place for this violence’ after Trump shooting
US President Joe Biden said he had been briefed on the shooting and it appeared Trump was doing well and he was hoping to speak to his rival.
“There’s no place for violence in this country. It’s sick,” he said at a press conference.
Biden said the Trump rally “should have been able to be conducted peacefully without any problem. But the idea … that there is political violence or violence like this in America is just unheard of. It is inappropriate. Everybody must condemn it.”
“I heard the shots, it sounded like between firecrackers and a small calibre handgun,” said John Yeykal from Franklin, Pennsylvania, who was attending his first Trump rally.
World leaders condemn ‘political violence’
, including some of Trump’s critical and rivals, to condemn the apparent shooting.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the incident was “concerning and confronting.”
US Senator Chuck Schumer in a statement said: “I am horrified by what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania and relieved that former President Trump is safe. Political violence has no place in our country”.
Former president Barack Obama said there was “absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy.”
