Former United States President Donald Trump was shot in the ear during a campaign rally in an attack that drew condemnation from leading Republicans and Democrats. The ear striking is being investigated as an assassination attempt.
The shooting on Saturday streaked blood across Trump’s face and set off panic among the thousands of people attending the rally in the city of Butler in Pennsylvania.
One person was killed in the shooting and two critically wounded, the U.S. Secret Service said. All were adult males, law enforcement officials said at a news conference. The gunman was shot dead by the Secret Service.
Trump was rushed off stage and the rally ended soon thereafter.
In a news conference that began late Saturday night, Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of FBI Pittsburgh field office, told reporters that law enforcement did not have an identified motive in the “assassination attempt.”
The shooter was tentatively identified, but the law enforcement authorities are working to confirm his identity, officials at the news conference said.
The attack was the most serious assassination attempt on a US president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It came in a deeply polarised political atmosphere, just four months from the presidential elections and days before Trump is to be officially named the Republican nominee at his party’s convention – which his campaign said would proceed as planned.