The FBI has identified the shooter in the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Pennsylvania, US media reported early Sunday.
“The FBI has identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the subject involved in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on July 13, in Butler, Pennsylvania,” the FBI said in a statement quoted by NBC and CBS.
A witness to Saturday’s shooting at a Trump rally told how a man next to him was shot dead during the apparent assassination attempt on the Republican presidential candidate.
“I heard several gunshots. The man beside me suffered a gun shot to the head, was instantly killed (and) fell to the bottom of the bleachers. Another woman looked like she got hit in the forearm or hand,” the man, whose name was only given as Joseph, told NBC News.
He said it seemed the victim was “in the way of the shots between whoever was shooting the gun and the president.”
A second witness, an unnamed man who said he was an emergency doctor, described trying to help one of the victims.
“Somebody over there was screaming he’s been shot, he’s been shot, so I made my way over, I said I’m an emergency department physician, let me help you,” said the man, who was wearing a white USA T-shirt stained with blood and a red MAGA hat.
“The guy had spun around, was jammed between the benches. He had a headshot here,” he said, indicating a spot on his head.
“There’s lots of blood and he had brain matter,” the man continued in comments that spread widely through US media.
Trump said he was hit in the ear but was not seriously injured by the gunman, who was killed after the incident.
Two other spectators were critically injured, the Secret Service said.
US President Joe Biden has spoken to his election rival Trump, a White House official said, after the Republican was injured in an apparent assassination attempt at a campaign event in Pennsylvania.
“This evening, President Biden spoke to former President Trump,” the official said, adding that the US incumbent would receive an updated briefing from law enforcement officials on the incident on Sunday morning.
The European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday she was “deeply shocked” by the shooting at rally by Donald Trump in which the former US president was wounded and a bystander killed.
“I am deeply shocked by the shooting that took place during former President Trump’s campaign rally,” the European Commission president said on X, formerly Twitter.
“I wish Donald Trump a speedy recovery and offer my condolences to the family of the innocent victim. Political violence has no place in a democracy,” she said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he was “deeply concerned” by the attack on his friend and former US president Donald Trump at an election rally.
“Strongly condemn the incident. Violence has no place in politics and democracies. Wish him speedy recovery,” he said in a post on social media.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the deceased, those injured and the American people,” he added.
