Donald Trump was shot in the ear during a Saturday campaign rally, streaking the Republican presidential candidate's blood across his face and prompting his security agents to swarm him, before he emerged and pumped his fist in the air, mouthing the words "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
The shooter was dead, one rally attendee was killed and two other spectators were injured, the Secret Service said in a statement.
The incident was being investigated as an assassination attempt, a source told Reuters.
Trump, 78, had just started his speech when the shots rang out.
He grabbed his right ear with his right hand, then brought his hand down to look at it before dropping to his knees behind the podium before Secret Service agents swarmed and covered him.
He emerged about a minute later, his red "Make America Great Again" hat knocked off, and could be heard saying "wait, wait," before the fist bump, then agents rushed him to a black SUV.
"I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear," Trump said later on his Truth Social platform following the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles (50 km) north of Pittsburgh. "Much bleeding took place."
The shooter's identity and motive were not immediately clear.
Leading Republicans and Democrats quickly condemned the violence.
The Trump campaign said he was "doing well." Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said Trump has left the Butler area under the protection of the U.S. Secret Service with the assistance of the Pennsylvania state police.
Republican U.S. Representative Daniel Meuser told CNN Trump was headed to Bedminster, New Jersey, where he has a golf club.
The shooting occurred less than four months before the Nov. 5 election, when Trump faces an election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.
Most opinion polls including those by Reuters/Ipsos show the two locked in a close contest.
Biden said in a statement: "There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it." Biden spoke with Trump following the shooting, a White House official said. Republican U.S. Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas told Fox News his nephew had been wounded at the rally.
The shooting raised immediate questions about security failures by the Secret Service, which provides former presidents including Trump with lifetime protection.
It was the first shooting of a U.S. president or major party candidate since the 1981 attempted assassination of Republican President Ronald Reagan. WITNESS ACCOUNT Ron Moose, a Trump supporter at the rally, said he heard about four shots.
"I saw the crowd go down and then Trump ducked also real quick," he said.
"Then the Secret Service all jumped and protected him as soon as they could. We are talking within a second they were all protecting him.
" Moose said he then saw a man running and being chased by officers in military uniforms. He said he heard additional shots, but was unsure who fired them. He noted that by then snipers had set up on the roof of a warehouse behind the stage. The BBC interviewed a man who described himself as an eyewitness, saying he saw a man armed with a rifle crawling up a roof near the event. The person, who the BBC did not identify, said he and the people he was with started pointing at the man, trying to alert security.
The shots appeared to come from outside the area secured by the Secret Service, the agency said.
The FBI said it had taken the lead in investigating the attack.
CNN, citing sources, said the FBI had identified the suspected shooter, a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man.
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