Trump survives assassination try

BUTLER — Donald Trump was hit in the ear in an assassination attempt by a gunman at a campaign rally Saturday, in a chaotic and shocking incident set to supercharge political tensions ahead of the polarizing US presidential election.

The 78-year-old former president was rushed off stage with blood streaked across his face after the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, while the shooter and a bystander were killed and two spectators critically injured.

The Republican candidate raised a defiant fist to the crowd as he was bundled away to safety, and said afterward: “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”

President Joe Biden, who is set to face Trump in November’s deeply polarized election, said the incident was “sick” and added that there was “no place in America for this kind of violence.”

Biden later spoke to Trump, the White House said.

The FBI has identified the gunman, who was shot dead, as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, US media reported early Sunday. His motive remains unknown.

The US Secret Service said earlier the shooter “fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside the rally” before being “neutralized” by agents.

Unconfirmed images appeared to show the assailant’s body lying on the sloping roof of a low building from where he had fired, plunging the rally filled with Trump supporters into screams and panic.

The FBI confirmed in a press conference that the shooting was being treated as “an assassination attempt against our former president, Donald Trump.”

The shooter was believed to be working alone, but law enforcement officials said they would not release any details yet.

After multiple witnesses said they saw the gunman before the shooting and alerted authorities, Butler police said they had “responded to a number of reports of suspicious activity” but gave no further details.

Trump, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap, had just started speaking at his final rally before the Republican National Convention when multiple bangs ran out.

He grimaced and clutched his ear, with blood visible on his ear and cheek, then ducked to the floor as Secret Service