FBI Reveals The Identity Of The Man Behind The Assassination Attempt On Donald Trump & The Firearm Used (pics)

A 20-year-old Pennsylvania man is the suspected shooter behind an “assassination attempt,” on Donald Trump, the FBI has confirmed.

The shooter was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks.

The US Secret Service confirmed Crooks, who fired multiple shots at the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was killed at the event.

Special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office Kevin Rojek said authorities had not yet identified a motive.

“This evening, we had what we’re calling an assassination attempt against our former president Donald Trump. It’s still an active crime scene,” Rojek said at a press conference.

A rally attendee died and two were critically injured in the incident, the FBI said.

Trump was seen with blood on his right ear surrounded by security agents on stage, moments after shots were heard at the rally on Sunday (AEST). The agents then rushed him off the stage as he pumped his fist in the air to a crowd.

Trump later said he was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of his right ear.

“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he said in a post on social media.

After leaving a medical facility for treatment for his injuries, Trump was later seen disembarking from a plane with a heavy security detail.

Crooks’s background is still unknown.

Records show the 20 year-old was registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he gave $US15 to a progressive political action committee in 2021, the day President Joe Biden was sworn in to office, Associated Press reports.

Rojek said investigators were working “tirelessly” to uncover the motive.

The Secret Service said the shooter fired shots from an elevated position outside the rally venue.

Law enforcement recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene, according to Associated Press.

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 told the BBC he and the people he was with started pointing at the man, trying to alert security.

The incident is being treated as an attempted assassination, said the FBI, which is the lead agency on the investigation.

Republican US House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House will also conduct a full investigation of the attack, adding: “The American people deserve to know the truth”