Photographing the assassination attempt of former President Trump

15 Jul 2024

NPR

NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with photojournalist Doug Mills about the viral photograph he took of what appears to be a bullet passing by former President Donald Trump's head at yesterday's rally.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

We're going to talk now about the images that tell the story of the failed assassination attempt against former President Trump - a photo of blood streaming down his face after an apparent bullet hit his ear, the former president defiantly pumping his fist in the air as Secret Service agents rushed him off the stage and a photo of what appears to be a bullet whizzing by Trump's head. That last picture was taken by New York Times photographer Doug Mills. I spoke with him earlier today.

All right. Doug Mills, I understand we've got you as you make your way to the Republican convention. So thanks for joining us from the airport.

DOUG MILLS: My pleasure. My pleasure.

DETROW: You were working the rally yesterday, as you often do, taking photographs just in front of the stage. Walk us through what you were doing and seeing at the moment of the gunshots.

MILLS: Well, I was one of the four pool photographers that are allowed in what's called the buffer zone around the president's stage. And it is, you know, a coveted position, but it's also one that we're in there for, like, the first 10 minutes of the rally. And then once he started making remarks, I was going around to different positions in the buffer, knowing that my time is limited there. And my last stop was right in front of the podium, where I was looking up as the huge flag above his head was - you know, was blowing in the wind, and he was making remarks and gesturing.

And he kind of looked over to his right, and then all of a sudden there were three or four loud pops. And frankly, I'm not a gun owner. I'm not around guns, so I don't hear that kind of sound, you know, often at all if ever. And so I really did not know that it was shots being fired. And I kept taking pictures, and then I realized that he had grimaced. And then he grabbed his ear, and then he took his hand off his ear. And, you know, there was blood on his ear, and then he went down. And I was like, oh, my God, he's been shot.

So I immediately ran, you know, to my left - to his right - from the same side that the shots were being fired from. I don't know why I went that way, but I did because I felt like that was the best angle to see him. And by the time, just the split seconds that I was making that move, he was completely covered and surrounded and basically draped with members of the Secret Service all over top of him. There must have been five or six agents on top of him. And I couldn't tell - there was no movement on the crowd because there were, you know, agents over top of him that I couldn't see. And then I started - I thought, OK, he's got to come off the right side 'cause those are the closest stairs to him. So I went over to that side of the stage, and then all of a sudden I looked back towards behind the podium, and they were picking him up. And I thought, oh, my God, he's alive. He's alive. And I could see his hand. And then I saw his face, and then I saw him, you know, put his fist up in the air...

DETROW: Yeah.

MILLS: ...With blood on his face. And I just could not believe it. I was - you know, my heart was pounding and just, you know, trying to capture the moment, you know, really just...

DETROW: You captured this amazing picture where you can see what appears to be the bullet whizzing by Trump's head. When did you realize you had captured that?

MILLS: I - it was a few minutes after the event ended when I was sending pictures directly from my Sony camera. It just dawned on me. I was like, wait, I think I was photographing him, you know, when the shots were fired because I was right in front of him. I mean, you know, your mind just is in a blank at this - because it's one moment after another. And I thought, I think I was taking pictures then.

So I called one of our photo editors, Jen (ph), and I was like, Jen, I need you to look over these images really closely for me because I think this was the moment that he was shot. And she said, well, there are people saying that he wasn't shot. And I said, well, if you look at these images, you'll see he grimaces and then he grabs his ear, and there's immediately blood on his hand. And she was like, oh, my God, send those right now. So I sent them in. And then she called me back probably five minutes later and said, you won't believe this. And I said, what? And she said, there's actually a picture with a bullet going behind him. And I said, oh, my God.

DETROW: What was your shutter speed?

MILLS: Eight-thousandth of a second.

DETROW: Ron Edmonds, the AP photographer who captured those iconic images of President Reagan being shot in 1981 - he died just a few weeks ago. Is he somebody you ever talked to about how he captured that moment, what he was thinking about in that moment? Were you thinking about that or any other moments where a photographer was there and got the image at just the right time, and it became a historical image? Have you thought about that at all in the last 24 hours?

MILLS: I have. Ron, you know, was a dear friend of mine, a colleague of mine who I worked at AP with for 15 years. You know, he was, you know, a mentor of mine. And I spoke with him many times about his pictures of the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, and I studied them. I - you know, obviously, every anniversary, we would talk about him. I would talk to him about it. And, you know, I asked him one time about it, and he said, you know - I said, how did you not blink? How did you not look up to see where the - where it was coming from? And he said it was just instincts, and I - you know, I really felt like I went forward. I didn't go backwards. You know, and I think that's something that happened to me yesterday. I went forward. Ron never took his eye off President Reagan, and I tried to do the same thing by not taking my eye off of former President Trump.

DETROW: That's New York Times photographer Doug Mills, working yesterday, captured images of former President Trump at the moment he was shot. Doug Mills, thank you so much.

MILLS: I appreciate you having me. Thank you very much.

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