Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Doug Mills has his finger on the shutter when a the gunman opened fire during former President Donald Trump’s rally on Friday.
Mills, who covered the rally for the New York Times, initially thought the noise was coming from a vehicle, but quickly realized it was something more serious.
“When I saw him he kind of grimaced and looked to the right and then he grabbed his ear, and he looked, I thought, and he went down. I was like, ‘Oh my god, he’s been shot’,” said Mills. .
Mills has covered the president since 1983 but never thought he would witness an assassination attempt.
According to law enforcement officials, the shooter, identified as 20 years old Thomas Matthew Crooks, Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was taken to a rally of the former president holding and firing six to eight rounds with an AR-style weapon. A Secret Service sniper quickly shot and killed him. Armed agents immediately chased Trump off the stage, blood running down the side of his face.
One audience member, a Pennsylvania firefighter Corey Comparatorewas killed in the shooting, and two other people are in critical condition.
Despite the chaos, Mills kept taking photos with his Sony camera, which shoots 30 frames per second.
“When he was carried off the stage, I thought it was going to be a picture where, you know, he’s bleeding from the ear, giving a fist pump. I sent the picture directly to The New York Times from the camera,” Mills said.
Doug Mills/The New York Times
Mills suddenly realized he forgot to send the photo he took while Trump was speaking. While checking on him, he noticed Trump grimacing and thought he had been shot. He immediately sent the picture to the editor and asked him to take a close look at it. Although he was skeptical at first, he called back a few minutes later and told him that he had caught something bigger – a picture that could have been found in history books years ago.
“I got a text and a phone call from him saying, You’re not going to believe this. We think we have a picture. You have a picture of a bullet in the back of his head. And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh’,” Mills said.
Mills then sends the raw image file to ensure all data is included. FBI forensics experts later verified that the photo showed the bullet.
Another pivotal image from the incident shows the former president raising his fists and shouting at the crowd to “fight.” Mills explained how, at the time, Trump looked defiant, looked at the crowd and shouted. However, just a few frames later, the shock seemed to him.
“He had a blank look. He looked really pale at that point, and then all the blood was in his ear and then it was coming out of his mouth. And I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. that’s what it looks like,'” Mills said.
Mills’ mentor, Ron Edmonds, the late photographer for the Associated Press, was present during the assassination attempt on former President Ronald Reagan. Mills remembers talking to him several times during the 15 years they worked together and remembers his advice: Always shoot.
“So when it happened, even though the former president’s staff was yelling for me to get down, get down, and the Secret Service was yelling for us to get down, I probably didn’t do the safest thing, but I ran around the side of the stage to try to capture the moment mentioned,” Mills said.
Read more photos of Mills in the New York Times here.
