The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as the subject involved in the assassination attempt of President Donald Trump.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condemned the assassination attempt on his “friend” Donald Trump.
During a two-day visit to India by Trump in 2020, the two leaders held hands and heaped praise on each other in front of a massive crowd in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
“Deeply concerned by the attack on my friend, former President Donald Trump,” he posted on X. “Strongly condemn the incident. Violence has no place in politics and democracies. Wish him speedy recovery.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the deceased, those injured and the American people.”
Donald Trump is pictured bloodied as he’s rushed off stage by Secret Service after a shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania. One audience member and the gunman have died. The incident is being investigated as an assassination attempt.
An man accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump was named as Thomas Matthew Crooks around seven hours after the shooting.
The FBI had said they were using biometrics to identify the gunman, who was hidden on a rooftop nearby the Trump rally yesterday.
Law enforcement said Crooks was 20 years old and from Bethel Park in Pennsylvania.
Bethel Park is a predominantly white, relatively well-to-do city in the southern part of greater Pittsburgh. The site of the rally, Butler, is about an hour’s drive north of Pittsburgh.
Sky’s US partner network NBC News found that Pennsylvania voter records listed a Thomas Matthew Crooks, with the same address and birth date, as a registered Republican, though it was not clear when the record was from.
Not much else is known about Crooks’ life or upbringing at this point.
But he is believed to have won a National Maths and Science Initiative Star Award worth $500 (£393) on graduating from Bethel Park High School in 2022, according to local news site the Tribune Review.
He also appeared to wear merchandise promoting one of YouTube’s most popular channels devoted to firearms during the attack, NBC News reported.
He was wearing a grey T-shirt with an American flag on the sleeve and block lettering that was partially obscured in photos from the scene.
The appearance and lettering on the shirt matches the appearance of a shirt that is for sale on the website for firearm YouTube channel Demolition Ranch.
Witness told police he saw man ‘move roof to roof’ before Trump shooting
A member of the crowd at Donald Trump’s rally said he saw the gunman “move roof to roof” about 200 to 250 yards from the former president.
Ben Macer said he told a police officer he could see someone from where he stood near a fence.
Speaking to KDKA-TV, a news outlet for CBS, he said: “I was up at the fence line, saw the guy move from roof to roof, talked, told an officer that he was on the roof.
“The officer came looking and I went back to where I was standing, heard that there was somebody that could see the person.
“So I went back to where they were standing, saw the person, went back and told the officer again that if he goes back to that particular spot, he can see the person, figuring that he would go on radio.
“And when I turned around to go back to where I was… is when the gunshots started and then it was just chaos and we all came running away and that was that.”
Mr Macer said he “did not have a good look at him” and concentrated on helping a woman and a young child out of the site.
“[He was] probably 200, 250 yards parallel to where the president was,” he added.
“I could not see the president, so I’m not 100% sure, but it was definitely close to parallel.”
Former prime minister Rishi Sunak has said he was “horrified by the attack in Pennsylvania”.
The Conservative leader also wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “In a democracy, you must be able to speak freely and stand for what you believe in.
“Violence and intimidation must never be allowed to prevail.
“My thoughts and prayers are with President Trump and the victims of this appalling attack.”
‘Miracle’ that Trump survived assassination attempt, says Farage
Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK and a friend of Donald Trump, has said it is a “miracle” that the former president is still alive.
Mr Farage, who has joined Mr Trump at a number of rallies, said he was “very upset” by the scenes in Pennsylvania yesterday.
“I was very upset when I heard the news late last night, Donald Trump survived by a miracle, frankly,” the MP tells Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
“But one innocent man is dead, two are fighting for their lives in hospital.
“It’s horrible, and yet somehow not surprising.”
Asked if he would have been at the rally had he not won a seat at the election, Mr Farage said: “I almost certainly would have been there.
“And of course it’s the convention next week, and I’ve now decided I will fly out and see him next Thursday and listen to his acceptance speech.
“Donald Trump is not perfect, but some of the things that are allowed to be said about him are frankly appalling.”
Mr Farage said he has contacted Mr Trump, but questioned how the former president can continue campaigning after the events.
“If I know Trump, he’ll probably continue regardless.”
In pictures: How the assassination attempt unfolded
Shots were fired just a few minutes into the start of the rally in Pennsylvania, where Donald Trump was speaking to supporters from a stage.
A bullet grazed Trump’s right ear and Secret Service agents were quick to cover the former president.
The shots appeared to come from outside the area secured by the Secret Service, the agency said, with this map showing where the gunfire appeared to come from.
As agents killed the suspected gunman, Trump quickly emerged from the scuffle to raise his right fist, mouthing the words “fight, fight, fight” in what could become a poignant image in the presidential election.
Agents armed with weapons scanned the area in the immediate aftermath.
With the evacuation from the site complete and Trump taken for treatment, empty seats and some waste were left behind.
Some in crowd ‘blamed Biden and CNN’, journalist says
Angry audience members blamed President Joe Biden and news network CNN in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt, a journalist in the crowd claims.
Tom Newton Dunn, former political editor of the Sun, was covering the event when “cracks were heard”, he said.
“So we all jumped the ground, got up on our knees 20 or 30 seconds later, I think we all wanted to see what had happened to Donald Trump,” he told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
“Eventually he rose again, and I was looking for any signs of blood on his white shirt. There was none. And he gave that that fisted salute.”
Then “pandemonium broke loose”, he said.
“The Secret Service tried to clear the site very quickly. It was a lot of shouting. A lot of women were in tears,” he added.
“A lot of men quite angry, getting very, very angry, blaming Joe Biden, blaming CNN, some really quite strong and, dare I say, preposterous things.
“But, you know, they were furious and they thought it was the other side that did it… and hopefully it’s just in the initial stages of the event, they’re saying things which I really hope they don’t mean.”
Mocked-up billboard
There was “immediate jubilation” that Trump “hadn’t been murdered in front of their eyes”, but that passed into “either terror, hysteria, upset, anger, a whole wave of human emotions”.
“Some [were] leaving the rally itself threatening retribution,” he said.
“There was… one of those mobile billboards outside the rally.
“Within an hour or so, they’d mocked up a crosshairs on Trump’s face with the words ‘Democrats tried to assassinate Trump’. Probably a very unhelpful suggestion altogether.”