It was a Saturday. People were wearing hats, sweating in the July humidity, and waiting for a speech they’d heard variations of a dozen times before. Then, the world tilted. If you’re asking when was trump’s assassination attempt, the short answer is July 13, 2024. But the "when" isn't just a calendar date; it’s a specific sequence of minutes that changed American politics forever.
At exactly 6:11 p.m. EDT, the first of eight shots rang out at the Butler Farm Show grounds in Pennsylvania.
Donald Trump had been on stage for less than ten minutes. He was mid-sentence, gesturing toward a large screen displaying border-crossing statistics. It’s wild to think about, but that one specific head tilt to the right—to look at a chart—is likely why he’s still alive. The bullet, fired from an AR-15-style rifle, grazed his upper right ear instead of hitting his skull.
The chaos that followed felt like it lasted hours, but it was over in seconds.
The Timeline of the Butler Shooting
Most people remember the iconic photo of Trump with his fist in the air, but the lead-up to that moment was a series of massive security red zones and missed red flags. Honestly, the timeline is pretty haunting when you look at how early law enforcement noticed something was off.
- 5:10 p.m. – Local police spot a suspicious man near the AGR International building. He’s got a rangefinder. This is a full hour before the shooting.
- 5:52 p.m. – The Secret Service is officially notified about a "suspicious person" with a rangefinder.
- 6:02 p.m. – Trump takes the stage. "God Bless the U.S.A." is blaring. The crowd is electric.
- 6:09 p.m. – Rallygoers start screaming. They see a guy crawling on a roof. They’re literally pointing at him. "He's got a gun!" someone yells.
- 6:11 p.m. – The shots begin.
It’s almost impossible to reconcile how a 20-year-old was able to climb onto a roof just 150 yards from a former president. That’s a distance shorter than two football fields. For a rifle, that's an easy shot.
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Who Was the Shooter?
The FBI eventually identified the gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. He was a 20-year-old dietary aide who didn't really have a massive social media footprint or a clear, singular manifesto that explained "why."
He wasn't some master assassin. He was a kid with a ladder he bought that morning and a rifle he got from his dad. He even flew a drone over the site earlier that afternoon to scout the area. It’s the kind of detail that makes you shake your head at the security lapses.
The Secret Service counter-snipers neutralized him within 26 seconds of his first shot. But by then, the damage was done.
Beyond the Podium: The Victims
We talk about the "assassination attempt" as a singular event focused on one man, but there was a lot of blood on those bleachers that had nothing to do with politics.
Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former fire chief, was killed while shielding his wife and daughters from the gunfire. He died a hero. Two other men, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, were critically injured but survived after being airlifted to hospitals.
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The scene was a mess.
One witness described the sound as firecrackers at first. Then the hydraulic lines on the speaker towers were hit, spraying fluid everywhere. People were diving under plastic chairs. It wasn't the clean, cinematic version of an emergency you see in movies. It was loud, confusing, and smelled like burnt gunpowder and summer grass.
Why July 13 Still Matters
The political fallout was immediate. We saw the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle after a grueling Congressional hearing where she called the event the "most significant operational failure" of the agency in decades.
It’s also important to realize how this changed the 2024 campaign. Before Butler, the conversation was largely about age and policy. After July 13, the imagery of a bloodied Trump pumping his fist became the defining visual of his movement.
What We’ve Learned Since
Investigative reports from the House Task Force and the FBI have peeled back the layers on how this happened. There was a "perfect storm" of communication failures. Local police were on one radio frequency; the Secret Service was on another. Nobody was on the roof because it was deemed "sloped" and potentially dangerous for officers to stand on for long periods.
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Basically, the most obvious "high ground" was left unguarded.
The FBI has since looked through Crooks’s devices, finding searches for both Trump and President Biden, as well as the dates for the Democratic National Convention. It suggests he was looking for a target of opportunity rather than being driven by a specific partisan grudge, though the investigation into his motive is technically ongoing.
Staying Informed on Public Safety
If you’re following these updates, the best thing you can do is stick to primary sources like the FBI’s official press releases or the full transcripts of Congressional testimonies. There’s a lot of noise and conspiracy theories out there, especially on X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Check the Congressional Reports: If you want the gritty details on the security lapses, look for the "House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump" reports. They are public and remarkably thorough.
- Verify News Sources: When a "new detail" drops, verify it through at least two legacy news outlets or official government statements to avoid the misinformation loop.
- Follow the Timeline: If you’re a history buff, many outlets have published "minute-by-minute" interactive maps of the Butler site. These provide the best spatial understanding of how close the shooter actually was.
Understanding when was trump’s assassination attempt helps contextualize the intense security shifts we’re seeing at rallies today. Things aren't going back to the way they were before that July evening in Pennsylvania.