The family of former President Donald Trump is grateful for the quick actions of law enforcement officials who "risked their own lives to protect" him when a gunman opened fire at a rally on Saturday, with a bullet grazing the former president and leaving a bystander dead. The former president was grazed in the right ear when a suspected gunman — identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks — opened fire while Trump was on the stage at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The Secret Service said it had "neutralized" the shooter, who is now dead.
On Sunday, Trump called on the country to "show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win." His family for their part issued statements after the incident, his wife, Melania , calling it a "heinous act." "America, the fabric of our gentle nation is tattered, but our courage and common sense must ascend and bring us back together as one," the former first lady said in a statement shared on social media .
She said that when she watched the "violent bullet" strike her husband, she realized that her life and that of the couple's son Barron was "on the brink of devastating change." "A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald's passion – his laughter, ingenuity, love of music and inspiration," Melania wrote. "This morning, ascend above the hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence," she added.
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