NYT Photographer Wins Pulitzer for Capturing Trump Assassination Attempt

New York Times photographer Doug Mills was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography on Monday for his dramatic images capturing the July 2024 assassination attempt on President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as per Fox News.

Among the historic images Mills captured was a now-iconic photo that showed a bullet flying past Trump’s head, moments before the then-Republican presidential candidate was struck. The sequence of images documented the chaos as Secret Service agents rushed the president off stage, blood visible on his ear, while Trump defiantly raised his fist and shouted, “Fight, fight, fight.”

Mills, a veteran photojournalist, was stationed near the stage when gunfire erupted during the campaign rally.

“There was a huge flag waving above his head, and I just happened to be taking pictures at the same time,” he recalled in a post-event interview with Fox News during the Republican National Convention. “Then, when I heard the pops, I guess I kept hitting the shutter.”

It wasn’t until later, while transmitting images from a nearby tent, that Mills realized the gravity of what he had captured.

“I was like, ‘Oh, hell. I remember taking pictures of him when this happened. Let me go back and look,’” he said.

An editor confirmed shortly after: one image clearly showed a bullet mid-flight near the president’s head.

Mills used a Sony a1 camera to capture the high-speed moment, a feat of timing and precision that helped secure journalism’s highest honor. His work stood out among a field of global submissions and was praised for its clarity, courage, and historical significance.

The Pulitzer was one of four awarded to The New York Times this year, with other prizes recognizing coverage of Sudan, Afghanistan, and Baltimore.

President Trump survived the assassination attempt, which has since been the subject of multiple investigations and national security reviews. The gunman, identified hours later, had been spotted roaming the rally site earlier that day.