The US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump narrowly escaped with his life as a bullet grazed his right ear during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
The shots were fired as a concerned citizen who had spotted the shooter on the roof of a building just outside the rally venue was attempting to alert security.
A number of secret service agents leapt on Trump to shield him after he fell, as others went to tackle the shooter, who was fatally shot. Trump managed to stand up and hold his fist up in defiance before being rushed off to hospital.
One member of the public was killed and two others were seriously wounded, all said to be adult men.
Trump was discharged later in the evening and said to be “fine”, and flew in his private jet to stay at one of his golf clubs under heavy security. He has since been posting messages in social media, thanking the Secret Service agents and law enforcement, and extending his condolences to the families of the members of the public killed and injured.
The shooter was later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks (20). From initial investigations it appears that he was a registered Republican, but had also donated to a fundraising group supporting the Democrats. He is believed to have used an AR-15 rifle, which is commonly used in mass shootings in the US. The investigation into his motives is ongoing.
US President Joe Biden condemned the shooting, and said of Trump, “I’m grateful to hear that he’s safe and doing well.” In the meantime the Democrats swiftly moved to take down much of their campaign advertisements attacking Trump from TV channels.
Other leaders around the world have united in denouncing the shooting.
Ironically the shooter may have achieved just the opposite of his objective, increasing Trump’s share of the vote in the coming elections by raising his public profile, gaining him a certain heroic status as the survivor of the first political assassination attempt in the US since the attempt on Reagan’s life in 1981.
