Donald Trump was shot in the ear during a Saturday campaign rally, in an attack that left the Republican presidential candidate's face streaked with blood and prompted his security agents to swarm him, before he emerged and pumped his fist in the air, mouthing the words "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
The shooter was dead, one rally attendee was killed and two other spectators were injured, the Secret Service said in a statement. The incident was being investigated as an assassination attempt.
Law enforcement officials told reporters they had tentatively identified a suspected shooter but were not ready to do so publicly. They also said they not yet identified a motive.
Trump, 78, had just started his speech when the shots rang out. He grabbed his right ear with his right hand, then brought his hand down to look at it before dropping to his knees behind the podium before Secret Service agents swarmed and covered him. He emerged about a minute later, his red "Make America Great Again" hat knocked off, and could be heard saying "wait, wait," before the fist bump, then agents rushed him to a black SUV.
"I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear," Trump said later on his Truth Social platform following the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles (50 km) north of Pittsburgh. "Much bleeding took place."
The shooting occurred less than four months before the Nov. 5 election, when Trump faces an election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden. Most opinion polls including those by Reuters/Ipsos show the two locked in a close contest.
Leading Republicans and Democrats quickly condemned the violence.
The Trump campaign said he was "doing well."
Biden said in a statement: "There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it."
Republican US Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas told Fox News his nephew had been wounded at the rally.
The shooting raised immediate questions about security failures by the Secret Service, which provides former presidents including Trump with lifetime protection.
It was the first shooting of a US president or major party candidate since the 1981 attempted assassination of Republican President Ronald Reagan.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said Trump has left the Butler area under the protection of the US Secret Service with the assistance of the Pennsylvania state police. Republican US Representative Daniel Meuser told CNN Trump was headed to Bedminster, New Jersey, where he has a golf club.
WITNESS ACCOUNT
Ron Moose, a Trump supporter at the rally, said he heard about four shots. "I saw the crowd go down and then Trump ducked also real quick," he said. "Then the Secret Service all jumped and protected him as soon as they could. We are talking within a second they were all protecting him."
The BBC interviewed a man who described himself as an eyewitness, saying he saw a man armed with a rifle crawling up a roof near the event. The person, who the BBC did not identify, said he and the people he was with started pointing at the man, trying to alert security.
