Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on July 14. It was updated on July 26 with additional forensic analysis.
Former President Donald Trump was injured in a shooting during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday evening, in what the FBI says was an assassination attempt. One rally attendee was killed and two others were seriously injured.
The rally marked Trump’s last public appearance before the scheduled start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where the Republican Party is set to formally select him as its presidential nominee.
Through videos, maps and photos, CNN pieced together what occurred from the start of the rally to the chaotic moments when gunshots erupted to, ultimately, when Trump landed in Newark, New Jersey, early Sunday morning.
Trump’s rally takes place in Butler, Pennsylvania, roughly 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.
The Butler Farm Show Grounds on 625 Evans City Road — about five miles from downtown Butler — is home to the Butler Farm Show, an annual agriculture fair.
Sources: Google, OpenStreetMap
6:05:12 p.m. ET
Trump starts addressing his supporters and speaks for roughly six minutes before the scene erupts into chaos.
6:09 p.m.
Video shows some attendees notice the gunman on the roof at least one minute and 57 seconds before the shooting begins, based on an analysis comparing this video to the moments in Trump’s speech. At least one law enforcement officer appears in the video to be walking around the building where the gunman is on the roof. You can see the gunman laying down on the roof crawling as people in the crowd shout out that there’s someone on the roof. Several rally attendees try to call attention to the gunman as Trump is speaking on the stage.
Source: TikTok
Trump is in the middle of speaking when someone in the crowd is heard saying, “He’s got a gun.” As the video captures someone in the crowd repeating, “On the roof. He’s got a gun,” three shots ring out. A pause and five more shots in rapid succession are heard, along with a final shot of a different tone. “Stay under here,” an attendee says in the video. Forensic analysis suggests that at least two weapons were fired at the rally (including, apparently, those fired as part of the response by law enforcement officials). The first eight shots were consistent with alleged weapon A and the final two shots were emitted by one or two “same or similar” weapon, per audio analysis by Catalin Grigoras, director of the National Center for Media Forensics at the University of Colorado in Denver, and Cole Whitecotton, Senior Professional Research Associate at the same institution. Their initial analysis was updated after receiving access to raw footage of the assassination attempt. The FBI said that the shooter acted alone.
Source: TMX
6:11:33 p.m.
Trump pauses mid-sentence as shots ring out.
6:11:34 p.m.
Trump touches the right side of his face.
6:11:35 p.m.
Trump takes cover as US Secret Service agents rush to the podium to surround him. “Get down, get down, get down,” one says.
While the gunman is positioned outside the rally venue, the distance between him and where Trump is speaking is only approximately 400 to 500 feet. CNN has learned that the gunman accessed the roof by climbing a building AC unit, though the timing of this action is not known.
Trump remains low to the ground surrounded by agents, who can be heard on the rally microphone discussing which vehicle would be used to move the former president away from the scene. Seconds later, multiple agents say, “Shooter’s down.” Law enforcement in tactical gear and rifles are now on the stage. A woman’s screams are heard following the sound of another shot.
Here’s a transcript of the audio at the podium with Trump and Secret Service members.
6:11:41 p.m.
Female agent: “What’re we doing? What’re we doing? …Where are we going…”Man indistinctly yelling.
6:11:50 p.m.
Gunshot, then woman screams.
6:11:58 p.m.
Male agent 2: “Go around to the spare. Go around to the spare.”(“Spare” refers to a spare limousine.)
6:12:00 p.m.
Male agent 3 appears to say something like: “Move to the spare, hold, hold, when you’re ready, on you.”
6:12:01 p.m.
Male agent 2: “Ready.”
6:12:02 p.m.
Male agent 3: “Move!”
6:12:03 p.m.
Male agent 2: “Up!”
6:12:03 p.m.
Male agent 3: “Move!”
6:12:04 p.m.
Male agent 4: “Go, go, go.”
6:12:06 p.m.
Male agent 2: “Hawkeye’s here.”(“Hawkeye” is the code name for the counter assault team.)
6:12:06 p.m.
Female agent 1: “Hawkeye’s here, moving to the spare.”
6:12:09 p.m.
Male agent 4: “Spare get ready, spare get ready.”
6:12:10 p.m.
Male agent 2: “You ready?”
6:12:16-21 p.m.
Agents: “Shooter’s down. Shooter’s down. Are we good to move?”
6:12:21 p.m.
Male agent: “Shooter’s down. We’re good to move.”
6:12:22 p.m.
Female agent: “Are we clear?”
6:12:23 p.m.
Agents: “We’re clear. We’re clear. We’re clear.”
6:12:23 p.m.
Male agent: “Let’s move. Let’s move.”
The suspected shooter fired from a building rooftop before he was killed by Secret Service personnel, the agency said.
Source: TikTok
One man who was shot and killed has since been identified as firefighter, father and husband, Corey Comperatore. His location was on the set of bleachers to Trump’s right. The two seriously injured victims, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, were sitting on the far end of the bleachers to Trump’s left. CNN geolocated the victims positions using verified videos and photos from the event.
Sources: Gene J. Puskar/AP, Facebook
6:12:25 p.m.
The agents prepare to move Trump offstage, but he tells them to wait. With blood dripping from his ear over a portion of his face, Trump lifts his fist in the air — prompting a loud cheer from the rally crowd — and mouths the word “fight” three times while pumping his fist.
Source: Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Source: Evan Vucci/AP
Source: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Source: Evan Vucci/AP
Here’s more of the transcript from the same audio with Trump and Secret Service members, after agents start to stand, lifting Trump.
6:12:33 p.m.
Trump: “Let me get my shoes. Let me get my shoes.”
6:12:35 p.m.
Male agent 2: “I got you sir. I got you sir.”
6:12:36 p.m.
Trump: “Let me get my shoes on.”
6:12:37 p.m.
Another male agent: “Hold on, your head is bloody.”
6:12:39 p.m.
Male agent 2: “Sir, we’ve got to move to the car, sir.”
6:12:42 p.m.
Trump: “Let me get my shoes.”
6:12:43 p.m.
Female agent: “OK, [inaudible].”
6:12:47 p.m.
Trump: “Wait, wait, wait.” He then fist pumps to crowd. He mouths “fight” three times — a move met with cheers by the crowd.
6:12:54 p.m.
Agent: “We got to move. We got to move.”
Trump was then helped down the stairs of the stage by five agents and ushered into the SUV that was waiting for him. Trump raised his fist one more time as he got into the backseat of the vehicle, which ultimately took him from the rally site to a local hospital.
6:51 p.m.
Trump’s spokesperson says the former president “is fine” and being evaluated at a “medical facility,” in a statement released approximately 40 minutes after the shooting.
8:42 p.m.
Roughly two and a half hours after he was taken off the rally stage, Trump says in a Truth Social statement, “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.”
Source: Truth Social
8:53 p.m.
Trump’s motorcade departs Butler Memorial Hospital, where he was medically evaluated after the shooting.
Source: CNN
11:00 p.m.
Approximate time that the gunman’s father reports him missing to law enforcement. Matthew Crooks tells agents that he believed his son, Thomas Matthew Crooks, had taken the rifle Saturday to go to the shooting range and thought he would be back by around 1 p.m., according to law enforcement officials. CNN has also learned that the shooter requested a day off from work Saturday because he had “something to do,” according to multiple law enforcement officials.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro says late Saturday night that Trump had left the Butler, Pennsylvania, area following the rally shooting. In the early hours of Sunday morning, Trump flies back to Newark, New Jersey. Trump campaign deputy communications director Margo Martin posts a video of Trump disembarking from a plane in Newark, writing on X: “Strong and resilient. He will never stop fighting for America.”
Source: Margo Martin/Trump campaign
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