*Pix above: T%he shooting range
Former US President Donald Trump was shot in the ear during a campaign rally on July 13. The former US President was addressing a gathering in Butler, Pennsylvania, when the shooting took place. He was seen clutching his ear and dropping to the ground as Secret Service agents covered him.
*Donald Trump
Trump stood up with blood on the side of his face and appeared to be saying “fight, fight” while pumping his fist. Later in a post on social media, Donald Trump said he was hit by a “bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear” when a gunman opened fire in his rally. “I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” the former US President wrote, adding “It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country.”
The incident marks a major security lapse and may reshape this year’s presidential race amid long-standing fears that the campaign could descend into political violence.
However, this is not the first time that a US president or presidential candidates were shot. There have been multiple instances of political violence targeting US presidents, former presidents and major party presidential candidates. Let’s take a look:
Abraham Lincoln (16th US President)
Abraham Lincoln was the first US president to be assassinated. On April 14, 1865, he was shot by John Wilkes Booth when he and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, attended a special performance of the comedy “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. His advocacy for Black rights was considered a motive for his assassination. Booth was found hiding in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia, and was shot on April 26, 1865.
Ames Garfield (20th US President)
Ames Garfield was the second person to be killed as a president while occupying the post. He was assassinated within six months after taking office. Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau on July 2, 1881, while walking through a train station in Washington. After being critically injured, the president remained at the White House for several weeks but died in September after being transported to the New Jersey shore.
William McKinley (25th president)
On September 1, 1901, William McKinley was shot after giving a speech in New York’s Buffalo by an unemployed 28-year-old doctor, Leon F Czolgosz. He was shot while shaking hands with the people when Czolgosz fired two shots into his chest at point-blank range. Initially, doctors anticipated his recovery, but complications from gangrene around the bullet wounds killed the president on September 14.
Franklin D Roosevelt (32nd president)
Roosevelt, a president-elect, had just given a speech in Miami from the back of an open car when gunshots rang out. He was not injured in the February 1933 shooting that killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. Guiseppe Zangara was convicted in the shooting and sentenced to death.
Harry S Truman (33rd president)
Truman was staying at Blair House, across the street from the White House, in November 1950 when two gunmen broke in. He was not injured, but a White House policeman and one of the assailants were killed in an exchange of gunfire. Two other White House policemen were wounded.
John F Kennedy (35th president)
Kennedy was fatally shot by a hidden assassin armed with a high-powered rifle as he visited Dallas in November 1963 with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Kennedy was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he died soon after. Hours after the assassination, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald after finding a sniper’s perch in a nearby building, the Texas School Book Depository. Two days later, Oswald was fatally shot while being taken from police headquarters to the county jail.
Gerald Ford (38th president) etc {agency}/###
