How many US presidents have been shot? A look back at history
Former President Donald Trump said he was shot at with a bullet that pierced his ear at a Pennsylvania campaign rally Saturday, where a suspected shooter fired multiple shots, prompting an investigation into the incident as an assassination attempt and leading to widespread condemnations of political violence from Democrats and Republicans alike.
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A spectator was killed, two others were critically injured and the suspected shooter is dead, according to the U.S. Secret Service. Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of FBI Pittsburgh field office, said in a news briefing late Saturday that the incident is being investigated as an attempted assassination of Trump, who is set to take the stage in Milwaukee at the Republican Party’s convention this week to formally accept his party’s presidential nomination.
It’s not the first time a president or presidential candidate has encountered a similar situation in U.S. history.
Assassinations
Four U.S. presidents have been assassinated in the country’s history: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy. Lincoln was attending a performance at Ford’s Theatre when he was killed. Garfield was at a railroad station in Washington, D.C., when he was shot, dying a couple of months later. McKinley was at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo and died several days later. Kennedy was in Dallas on a campaign trip when he was killed.
Survived shootings
Other presidents survived shootings.
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In 1912, President Theodore Roosevelt was on the campaign trail seeking a third term. In Milwaukee, a man in a crowd shot at Roosevelt, but a speech manuscript and an eyeglasses case in his breast pocket appeared to save his life, according to the Library of Congress. Roosevelt insisted on sticking with his plans to stump at a local auditorium. “This may be my last talk in this cause to our people,” he said, according to the library. He was driven to the venue and began his speech by telling the crowd he had just been shot.
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In 1981, President Ronald Reagan was wounded by a bullet fired by a shooter as the president left a hotel in Washington, D.C., after speaking to members of the AFL-CIO, according to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum. The bullet first hit a limousine before striking Reagan. “President Reagan’s wounds were not noticed until he began to cough up blood,” a post from the museum’s website states. He spent 12 days in the hospital.
A candidate assassinated
A presidential candidate was killed in 1968 when Robert F. Kennedy addressed a crowd of supporters at a Los Angeles hotel in June of that year to deliver a campaign victory speech. A gunman hit Kennedy, who died the next day. He was a U.S. Senator at the time.
Contact Clara Hendrickson: [email protected] or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, previously called Twitter, @clarajanehen.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How many US presidents have been shot?