The New York Times has published a photo appearing to show a bullet flying past Donald Trump’s head, at the moment he was targeted by a gunman at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. The image was captured by veteran NYT photographer Doug Mills at the campaign event in the city of Butler, where the Republican presidential hopeful was giving a speech in the run-up to the November 5 election.
Several shots were fired, killing one spectator and severely injuring two more. Trump was whisked off stage by Secret Service agents, and later moved to a “safe” place.” Security officials later reported that the 20-year-old suspected shooter, who had reportedly fired from a nearby rooftop, was shot and killed.
Mills’ photo shows what appears to be a bullet streaking through the air to the right of Trump’s head. The photographer, who has been taking pictures of US presidents for more than four decades, described his experience.
Mills said the event started out as a “very standard, typical rally,” with him and several other photographers standing “in what is called the buffer area just a couple feet from the former president.”
“All of a sudden, there was what I thought were three or four loud pops. At first I thought it was a car. The last thing I thought was it was a gun,” Mills recalled.
He continued to take pictures, but soon could not see the former president as Trump was surrounded by Secret Service agents from all sides, with counter-snipers appearing on the stage.
Despite looking defiant and seemingly unfazed in his photo with a raised fist high, Trump appeared “very, very shocked” the moment after, according to Mills.
The photographer told the paper he had “never been in a more horrific scene” during his decades-long career.
Retired FBI special agent Michael Harrigan, who currently works as a consultant in the firearms industry, confirmed to the newspaper that Mills’ photo most likely captured the “bullet’s path through the air.”
While technically possible with the camera used by Mills, “catching a bullet on a side trajectory as seen in that photo would be a one in a million shot… even if one knew the bullet was coming,” the former FBI agent noted.