FBI believes shooter who tried to assassinate Donald Trump acted alone; Biden calls for nation to ‘dial the rhetoric down’

A defiant Donald Trump called for unity and resilience a day after surviving an attempted assassination at a campaign rally in Western Pennsylvania, while federal authorities worked feverishly Sunday to uncover more information about the background and motivations of the 20-year-old Allegheny County man named as the shooter.

The gunman, whom the FBI identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pa., opened fire Saturday evening from the rooftop of a building near the rally site at a fairgrounds in Butler, about an hour outside Pittsburgh, authorities said.

Trump had just taken the stage at what was scheduled to be his last planned public appearance before heading to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee when shots rang out just after 6:10 p.m. The former president was slightly wounded by a bullet that he later said pierced his right ear.

Former President Donald Trump told The Washington Examiner that he has rewritten the speech he was set to deliver at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday after being the target of an attempted assassination at his rally Saturday.

“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” he told the news outlet in an article posted Sunday evening.

In the interview, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee says he will now call for a new effort at national unity, noting that people from different political views have called him.

President Biden on Sunday evening called on Americans to recommit themselves to using peaceful political rhetoric and striving for national unity following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

During a six-minute primetime address from the Oval Office, Biden said the shooting of his political rival during a rally in Butler, Pa. offers a chance for the nation to “dial the rhetoric down.”

“We cannot, we must not, go down this road in America,” Biden said. “We’ve traveled it before in our history. Violence has never been the answer.”

Former President Donald Trump has arrived in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention a day after he was targeted in an attempted assassination at a campaign event.

Trump’s airplane touched down Sunday, the day before the four-day event kicks off with thousands of Republicans coming together to formally elect him as their 2024 presidential nominee.

The shocking scenes of violence at his Saturday campaign rally that injured his right ear, killed a spectator and injured another set a dark backdrop for the convention, which is typically four days of party pageantry, political speeches, policy platforms and the presidential nominee’s keynote address.

Misinformation has spread widely in the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

A whirlwind of conflicting conspiracy theories has blown across social media since the shooting Saturday by gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park,

Right-wing social media users claimed baselessly that Biden and the deep state were behind it, or, as the Kremlin said, they created the atmosphere that provoked the attack. Others on the left asserted it was staged by Trump supporters carrying out a “false flag operation,” perhaps using fake blood, to elicit sympathy and votes. Yet another theory was that the media is to blame for a near-deadly overdose of negative Trump narratives that triggered the violence. Ultimately, however, it may have been the Chinese, or Antifa, other conspiracy theorists claimed.

A Pennsylvania Democratic official posted “A for effort” on Facebook Saturday shortly after former President Donald Trump was shot at his rally in the state. Defenders of the former president expressed outrage on social media, interpreting the post as mocking his assassination attempt.

But she said it was about her New York strip steak.

“All of a sudden I saw all these angry faces, and I’m like why do I have angry faces?” Jess Branas, an Upper Darby Township councilmember and district director for the Pennsylvania House Democrats, said in an interview about the outrage she faced on Facebook.

U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, (R., Pa.), said he hoped the shooting would be the starting point for a change in political rhetoric away from personal attacks and towards policy disagreements. He said he hoped to be part of that change.

“I’d like to see us be more professional, be less personal, talk about policy, actually try to find common ground on what we can work on and advance,” he said.

Acknowledging his own bias as a Republican, Meuser noted how often Donald Trump is called vilifying names by those on the left like Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough.

At Zeidler Union Square, about a half mile from the convention center, a group of about 100 Trump supporters gathered with signs that said “PRAY 4 TRUMP,” and “GET WELL.”

Speakers led the group in prayers in the city’s oldest park. The event was organized by the conservative group Turning Points Action.

“The only hope we have is to get on our knees and clap to the king of kings,” said pastor Van Gildren from Falls Baptist church in Menomonee Falls.

The U.S. Secret Service's security plan for the Republican National Convention will remain in place without additional changes following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, officials said at a Sunday news conference.

"During our extended planning efforts, we have accounted for various security scenarios that may arise, and we are confident in the plan we have implemented for the Republican National Convention," said the Secret Service's RNC coordinator Audrey Gibson-Cicchino. "That security plan will remain in place."

Gibson-Cicchino added that developing a security plan for the convention was an 18-month process that involved federal, state, and local law enforcement and public safety partners.

Not long before shots rang out, rallygoers noticed a man climbing to the roof of a nearby building and warned local police, according to two law enforcement officials.

One local police officer climbed to the roof and encountered Crooks, who pointed his rifle at the officer. Because the officer was gripping the roof’s edge, Butler County Sheriff Michael T. Slupe said in an interview Sunday with The Washington Post, he didn’t have a gun in his hand and dropped back down to the ground.

“He lets go because he doesn’t want to get killed,” Slupe said.

State Rep. Stephenie Scialabba, a Republican from Butler County, was seated in the front row at Trump’s rally alongside other state lawmakers, members of Congress and Senate candidate Dave McCormick when shots began firing.

Scialabba heard people around her claim the popping was fireworks but then someone else yelled “mayday mayday.” The person behind her, she said, died and there was blood everywhere.

As she crouched down under a metal folding chair she looked up at the clear sky and thought “this guy wherever he is, behind us, I could tell he was behind us, has a clear wide open shot at any of us right now.”

The Pennsylvania State Police released the names of the three attendees who were shot at former President Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday in Butler County.

The two surviving victims were identified as David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, Pa., and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, Pa. Both victims are hospitalized and in stable condition, according to state police. Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pa., was killed by the shooting.

“These victims and their families are certainly in our thoughts today,” said Colonel Christopher Paris, Pennsylvania state police commissioner. “The Pennsylvania State Police continue to work tirelessly alongside our federal, state and local partners as this investigation continues.”

Donald Trump will attend the Republican National Convention from day one, according to a post he made on Truth Social Sunday afternoon.

Trump said he had planned to delay his trip to the Milwaukee conference by two days in the wake of being shot at his Saturday rally.

But he decided he’ll leave for the city at 3:30 p.m. Sunday after all, because he “just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else,” he posted.

Former classmates have recalled Thomas Crooks — the gunman who injured former President Trump and killed a local firefighter during a campaign rally on Saturday — as a loner, a constant target for bullies, and an outcast who wore “hunting” outfits to school.

But that wasn’t what Mark Sigafoos remembered of the quiet but friendly student he shared two classes with at Bethel Park High School.

“He was very kind,” Sigafoos told The Inquirer on Sunday. “He was a nerdy kid, but I don’t think he was as harshly bullied as some people are saying. He never wore trench coats or anything of the sort to school.”

During live remarks around 2 p.m. on Sunday, President Joe Biden said he had a “short but good conversation” with former President Donald Trump last night and that he is “sincerely grateful" that Trump is "doing well and recovering.”

Biden said Trump “already receives a heightened level of security," and that he’s “been consistent" in directing the Secret Service to provide Trump "with every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure his continued safety.”

Additionally, Biden said he directed the head of the Secret Service to review all security measures for the Republican National Convention, which is slated to begin Monday, and directed an "independent review of national security" of Saturday’s rally to determine what exactly happened.

Max Ryan Smith, another Bethel Park High School graduate, recalled taking an American history course with suspected shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks as a sophomore. He said the assassination attempt had left the small, tight-knit community reeling.

“Everybody is in shock,” Smith said. “He was so quiet, I wouldn’t imagine him doing that. But I guess that was the same deal with Columbine.”

Smith described his former classmate as nice, quiet, and intelligent. But he said his clearest memories of Crooks were related to his political leanings.

President Joe Biden will address the nation Sunday afternoon after a Situation Room briefing about the apparent assassination attempt on his predecessor, Donald Trump.

Biden is scheduled to speak at 1:30 p.m.

Biden quickly denounced the shooting and talked to Trump in its aftermath. His campaign team, meanwhile, is grappling with how to manage the political implications of an attack on the man Biden hopes to defeat in the November election.

The multi-acre Butler Farm Show grounds where a gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump during a rally on Saturday was secured and surrounded by police on Sunday as agents continue to investigate the shooting.

A few dozen journalists and spectators lined the perimeter of the vast property, located in a quiet Western Pennsylvania suburb about an hour outside of Pittsburgh. A massive American flag flew above the fairgrounds.

John Hudson, a former secret service agent of 11 years who said he served during the George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush administrations, stood on the side of the road and looked toward the buildings in the distance.

The man killed when shots broke out at former President Donald Trump’s rally Saturday was shielding his wife and daughters, a family member posted on Facebook.

His sister identified the victim on Facebook as 50-year-old Corey Comperatore.

In a post mourning the loss, Comperatore’s sister, Dawn Comperatore Schafer, described her brother as a hero.

Speaking to reporters in Butler County on Sunday morning Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, called for a cooling of political rhetoric and paid tribute to Corey Comperatore, who died at the rally.

The governor, however, declined to answer detailed questions about the shooting and rally security, noting that law enforcement would have updates.

Shapiro said he has called for flags to fly at half mast in honor of 50-year-old Comperatore, who died protecting his wife and daughters.

Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick attended Saturday's rally in Butler, Pa., and was about to join Donald Trump on stage when the former president said for him to come up “a little later.”

“Had he not changed his mind, I think I would’ve been up on that stage,” McCormick said during an interview on CNN Sunday.

McCormick called the shooting “surreal,” and he realized quickly the popping sounds that interrupted Trump’s speech came from a rifle. He called it “inconceivable” that the suspected shooter could get so close to the former president, describing it as a “huge failure” of security.

Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) called the shooting at a Donald Trump rally in Western Pennsylvania “horrific” and condemned the violence that occurred at an otherwise peaceful political rally.

“This is a terribly sad 24 hours for our commonwealth and our country,” Casey said during an interview on CNN Sunday morning. “We’re just grateful, despite the fact we lost a Pennsylvanian in this horrific shooting and we have two in the hospital, that President Trump was okay.”

Casey said all Americans, including elected officials, need to take steps to reduce the likelihood incidents like this will happen again. That includes learning the motives of the suspected shooter, whom officials have identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that investigators believe the weapon was bought by the father of Thomas Matthew Crooks, who’s been identified as the shooter, at least six months ago.

The officials said federal agents were still working to understand when and how Crooks obtained the gun and gather additional information about him as they worked to try to identify a possible motive. The investigation is focused on Crooks.

The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser (R., Pa), who was in the first row of the rally with Rep. Mike Kelly (R., Pa.) and Republican Senate Candidate Dave McCormick, said there is “plenty of blame to go around” surrounding the heated political environment in the country in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.

“This president just gets vilified, President Trump I mean,” he said. “From fascism to Hitler to dictator … but I’m willing to state at the same time, we all need to take a responsibility to cool things down, to say what we mean but don’t say it mean, to not get personal, to have dialogue rather than attacks.”

But he also described a collegial atmosphere both among rally attendees and from Democratic politicians after the shooting.

Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) said former President Donald Trump being shot at a rally in Western Pennsylvania was “a dark day for our nation” and called for political unity in the country.

“We just have to turn down the temperature,” Fetterman said during an interview on CNN, adding he was “grateful” Trump wasn’t seriously injured in what officials described as an assassination attempt.

Fetterman wasn’t at the rally Saturday, but said he was about an hour north in Sharon, Pa. to attend a candlelight vigil for Pauly Likens, a 14-year-old transgender teen who was murdered last month.

The suspected shooter of former President Donald Trump was wearing a T-shirt from a popular Youtube channel that focused on firearms and explosives at the time of the would-be assassination.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Hill, Pa., can be seen in images confirmed by law enforcement wearing a T-shirt for “Demolition Ranch,” a channel boasting over 11 million subscribers. It typically features range footage of high-powered or exotic weaponry, skits and stunt challenges — like a video depicting hosts destroying a Hummer with gunfire.

Demolition Ranch sells merchandise, including “Demolitia” shirts for its fans, like the one worn by Crooks.

In a post on Truth Social Sunday morning, former President Donald Trump called for unity after being wounded in what officials are describing as an assassination attempt at his rally Saturday.

“In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win,” Trump wrote.

Trump also thank "everyone for your thoughts and prayers," adding, "We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed."

At Gate B6 at Philadelphia International Airport, delegates headed to the Republican National Convention were processing the Butler rally shooting while looking ahead to the week of Republican Party events culminating in the nomination for former president Donald Trump.

“We need to be unified as a nation and a people and move forward,” Pennsylvania GOP chair Lawrence Tabas said as he waited for the flight. “Violence has no place in a political democracy and we just need to come together as a people.”

The delegation of about 100 people includes several from Butler County who attended the rally. Tabas said the convention would be an opportunity to show support for them as well as the president as the nominee.

Federal authorities on Sunday named Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa., as the gunman who shot at former president Donald Trump in what they described as an assassination attempt during a campaign rally a day earlier in Western Pennsylvania.

The incident — which interrupted the event that had drawn thousands to the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pa., just after Trump had taken the stage — left the former president with minor injuries, one spectator dead, and two others critically injured. Crooks was killed by the U.S. Secret Service shortly after he opened fire from the roof of a building near the fairgrounds, outside of the event’s security perimeter.

Officials said at a news conference early Sunday that they were still working to identify what prompted Crooks’ attack.

Attendees at former President Donald Trump’s Butler County rally on Saturday said security mirrored what they’d experienced at other Trump rallies.

But minutes into Trump’s speech someone opened fire, killing one person, placing two others in critical condition and minorly injuring Trump, who said his ear was struck by a bullet.

Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said the suspected gunman was dead but law enforcement has not identified the shooter. The Secret Service said the suspected shooter was on “an elevated position” outside the rally.

Former President Donald Trump had just begun his remarks at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., Saturday evening when a series of gunshots rang out followed by screams.

Secret Service agents rushed toward Trump and soon whisked the former president, whose face and right ear were bloodied, from the stage. Trump, who later reported he was shot in the ear, was said to be “fine” and safe and was being treated for his injuries.

At least two people were killed, including the suspected shooter, and two more rally attendees were injured, according to the Secret Service.

President Joe Biden spoke with former President Donald Trump Saturday night after he was wounded in a shooting at a rally in Butler, Pa., Saturday, according to the White House.

No details of the call were released.

Biden returned to the White House a day earlier than planned following the shooting, with one attendee dead and two critically injured. The shooter is also dead, according to the Secret Service.

Former President Donald Trump suffered a minor injury in what law enforcement officials were investigating as an assassination attempt Saturday at a rally in Western Pennsylvania that drew thousands of attendees Saturday evening.

The suspected gunman and at least one member of the audience were killed after gunfire rang out shortly after Trump took the stage. Two spectators were also critically injured after the gunman fired from what the Secret Service described as an elevated platform outside of the rally.

“The former President is safe,” the agency said in a statement shortly afterward. Trump’s campaign reported that he was “fine” and that he was being checked over for injuries at a local medical facility.