- Trump survives assassination attempt at election rally.
- The shooter's car parked near Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
- Incident being investigated as attempted murder.
WASHINGTON: US authorities found explosive devices in the car of the man they say tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources.
The car driven by the suspected shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was parked near Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, the newspaper reported.
The newspaper and ABC News Both reported that the gun Crooks used was purchased by his father.
Meanwhile, CNN reported that the shooter also had explosive material inside his residence.
The incident was being investigated as an attempted murder.
Trump, who is running for president again, was attacked during an election campaign rally. He was shot in the ear, leaving blood stains from the Republican on his face and prompting his security agents to surround him, before he emerged and raised his fist in the air, saying: “Fight, fight, fight!”
The shooter, the Federal Bureau of Investigation identified, was a 20-year-old named Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was shot and killed by the Secret Service just after he fired several shots at Trump.
The US Secret Service said in a statement that the shooter “fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside the rally” before being “neutralized” by agents.
“I was shot with a bullet that went through the top of my right ear,” Trump later said on his Truth Social platform after the shooting in Pennsylvania, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Pittsburgh.
“There was a lot of bleeding,” but the Trump campaign said he was “doing fine.”
The shooting occurred less than four months before the Nov. 5 election, when Trump faces a rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden. Most opinion polls, including those by Reuters/Ipsos, show the two in a tight race.
Biden said in a statement: “There is no place for this kind of violence in America. We must come together as one nation to condemn it.”
Additional information from AFP
