According to senior law enforcement officials, a shooter opened fire from an “elevated position” outside the Secret Service's security perimeter, striking Trump in the right ear.
The suspected shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was shot and killed by the Secret Service at the scene. One spectator was also killed and two others were injured.
Witnesses on the ground described the pandemonium that followed, with initial uncertainty giving way to a mass evacuation of the venue as people scrambled for safety.
FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek, who heads the Pittsburgh office, urged patience, saying that answers to the many questions surrounding the assault will be "days, weeks and months" away.
Trump himself took to social media to say that a bullet "pierced the upper part" of his right ear before he was whisked off stage by his security detail.
The attempt on Trump’s life has laid bare the deep divisions and volatility that have come to define the current US political landscape.
Analysts, meanwhile, say that Trump could use the attempt on his life to further galvanize his supporters to boost his presidential campaign against the incumbent Democrat, President Joe Biden.
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