People across the Bay Area are reacting to the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania. In the East Bay, some took to the streets to publicly demonstrate their support of Trump.
Al Norman was just one of many who gathered at an overpass in Lafayette waving flags and condemning political violence.
“The federal government needs to say we have to be tolerant of both political views and that’s what our country is about to express your political opinions without violence,” Norman said.
Others at the gathering said the shooting was “horrific” and “earthshattering.”
At Saturday’s rally, Trump stopped mid-stump and reached for the side of his face as popping sounds rang out over the crowd of supporters. He then crouched down as Secret Service agents rushed to the stage and surrounded him. He was quickly escorted into an armored vehicle, with agents on all sides of him.
The former president took to social media and said he is blooded by fine after close to 12 bullets were heard to be fired, one grazing his ear.
Since then, federal authorities have identified the alleged shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office confirmed Sunday morning.
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Investigators are still working to identify a possible motive for the shooting.
Max Noel, a retired FBI agent, said the public should be patient as the authorities investigate and provide answers about the shooting and gunman.
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“We’ve got to turn their rhetoric down,” Noel said. “We got to turn the temperature down in this country. We need leaders of all parties, on both sides, to call that out and to make sure that happens so we can go forward and maintain our free society that we all are blessed to have. “
President Biden highlighted those sentiments twice from the nation's capital. Once speech coming from the Oval Office in a national address on Sunday.
“We can’t allow this violence to be normalized,” Biden said. “Political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated, it’s time to cool it down.”
He added that although the shooting has heightened emotions the nation must reflect and that "violence has never been the answer."
All the discourse comes a day before the Republican National Convention is set to start in Wisconsin.
President Trump landed in Milwaukee where thousands of Republicans are coming together to formally elect him as the party's 2024 presidential nominee.
