How the assassination attempt on Trump unfolded

CNN —

Former President Donald Trump’s rally speech in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday evening began just as it had at dozens of rallies previously – his attendees chanted “USA! USA!” and Trump clapped and pointed to faces in the crowd before taking the lectern.

About 150 yards to the north of the former president, a gunman was climbing onto the roof of a building outside the rally security perimeter. He had an AR-style weapon with him. Six minutes into the former president’s speech, the gunman took aim at Trump and squeezed the trigger.

What happened next was as miraculous as it was historic. The gunman, later identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired multiple shots, including one that Trump said skimmed his ear. Trump ducked to the ground. Five Secret Service agents rushed to the stage and covered the former president, as the pop-pop from another two additional bursts of gunfire rang out across the Butler Farm Show grounds.

Forty-three seconds after the first shot was fired, a Secret Service agent said the shooter was down. Trump, his ear and face bloodied, was brought to his feet. He raised his fist in a defiant and iconic pose to his supporters to let them know he was OK before agents took him off the stage and into his SUV.

At least three rally attendees were shot, one of whom was killed.

The incident is being investigated as an assassination attempt. It is the first time since 1981, when John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan, that a current or former president has been shot at. It’s still too soon to determine what security failures may have occurred, such as how the shooter was able to get a clear line of sight to Trump.

Attendees have helped to fill in some