The gunman suspected of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally on Saturday was shot and killed by Secret Service agents, sources told M10news.
Identified only as a white male, the shooter was in an elevated sniper position several hundred yards away from Trump’s podium in Butler, Pennsylvania.
During Trump’s speech, bullets rang out, causing the former president to put his hand to his right ear before being tackled to the ground by Secret Service agents.
Moments later, Trump stood up, instructed his security detail to “wait,” and rallied the shaken crowd by pumping his fist and shouting “fight.”
“He came within inches of having his face shot open,” a senior law enforcement source said. The shooter, who was not an attendee at the rally, was not carrying identification, and his identity remains unknown. An AR-style rifle was recovered at the scene.
Authorities confirmed that at least one attendee was killed, and two others were critically injured. Bystander footage showed a deceased man in light-coloured military fatigues on a rooftop a few hundred feet from the rally stage. Witnesses described seeing a suspicious person “bear crawling” up the roof and frantically tried to alert nearby police officers.
“He had a rifle — you could see him with a rifle,” one witness said, describing the suspect getting into position about 3-4 minutes before opening fire. The Secret Service eventually fired fatal shots, taking down the gunman.
“They blew his head off. The Secret Service blew his head off,” a Trump supporter told BBC News. Elon Musk, who posted the BBC interview on X, criticized the Secret Service’s response time and called for the resignation of their leadership. Musk also expressed his endorsement of Trump and wished him a speedy recovery.
Saturday’s attack is the first assassination attempt on a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
The incident occurred just days before Trump was officially named the Republican nominee at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
