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The Latest: Authorities Hold First Press Conference on Attempted Trump Assassination

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  July 14, 2024 12:27 AM

State and federal law enforcement officials held their first press conference late Saturday night following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that killed one attendee and critically wounded two others.

Despite reportedly confirming that the shooter was a 20-year-old male from Pennsylvania, authorities said they were still "not prepared" to release the name of Trump's would-be assassin. 

As Saturday night tipped over into Sunday morning, the officials said they would not release the shooter's name until they had "100 percent confidence" in the assailant's identity. Authorities also would not comment on the shooter's motive while "investigators are working tirelessly to identify what that motive was."

Authorities stated that some of the delay in positively identifying the shooter came because "there was no identification" on his person. "It's a matter of doing biometric confirmations," officials explained, including "looking at photographs" and running his DNA to see if there's a match already in a system.

As of the early hours of Sunday, the officials said there is "no reason to believe there is any other existing threat out there." 

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Asked whether the shooter was a "lone wolf," authorities said it's still "too early" to say and that while they have "one shooter tentatively identified" investigators are "not stopping there" as they continue processing the rally-turned-crime scene and following leads. 

Officials did confirm that the elevated position from which the shooter fired at Trump as he rallied his supporters was "some distance" outside the security perimeter. Asked about the shooter's ability to use that vantage point, authorities said that the Secret Service — which did not have a representative at the press conference — "needs to answer that question." They claimed that the shooter was not noticed until he started shooting despite eyewitness accounts from rally-goers who said they saw him and tried to alert law enforcement. 

Pledging to run "a speedy, thorough investigation," authorities noted there were a "variety of crimes that have been committed" under both state and federal jurisdiction. The Secret Service and FBI will continue investigating the attempted assassination while Pennsylvania State Police "will take the lead on the homicide and the shootings of the other individuals in the grandstand area."

There are "a lot of witnesses" still to be interviewed, the officials said, as well as "some complicators that slowed down some of the processing and the positive identification of the shooter." The causes for those delays, authorities said, would be explained in a future update. Authorities also refused to comment on the type of firearm used by the shooter or if he was previously known to law enforcement — more details they said may be provided in subsequent press conferences.

"It was a chaotic scene," the officials reiterated before praising federal agents and state and local law enforcement for acting "heroically" as the attack unfolded "very quickly."

Although the former President of the United States was shot, officials wouldn't make an "assessment" about whether the attack was a "failure of security."

While the officials wouldn't answer most of the looming questions late Saturday night, there are even more big-picture questions that remain to be answered. 

To that end, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) pledged a full investigation of the "tragic events" in Pennsylvania. "The American people deserve to know the truth," Johnson declared in a post on X. "We will have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and other appropriate officials from DHS and the FBI appear for a hearing before our committees ASAP." 

Within hours of the attempt on Trump's life, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) fired off an invitation to Director Cheatle to testify at a July 22 hearing.

This is a developing story and may be updated.