Photographer wins Pulitzer for iconic photo of bullet speeding by Trump’s head during assassination attempt

A New York Times photographer was awarded with a Pulitzer Prize Monday for his photos of the assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The July 13 event yielded numerous historic photos and videos, such as when Trump quickly got up after being shot as Secret Service agents escorted him off the stage holding his fist in the air while shouting the words, “Fight, fight, fight.”

One iconic image by The Times’ Doug Mills managed to capture the split-second moment a speeding bullet was seen mid-air next to Trump’s head at the rally. The photo was one of several he captured that day that earned him one of the most prestigious awards in journalism.

Days after the assassination attempt, Mills sat down with Fox News at the Republican National Convention to share his firsthand account of the shocking ordeal. 

ATTEMPTED TRUMP ASSASSIN SEEN WALKING AROUND PENNSYLVANIA RALLY HOURS BEFORE OPENING FIRE

“I just happened to be down, shooting with a wide-angle lens just below the president when he was speaking. There was a huge flag waving right above his head, and I just happened to be taking pictures at the same time,” he told “America’s Newsroom” in Milwaukee at the time.

“Then, when I heard the pops, I guess I kept hitting on the shutter, and then I saw him reach for his [ear]. He grimaced and grabbed his hand and looked. It was blood, and then he went down, and I thought, ‘Dear God, he’s been shot,'” he continued.

Mills said the moment he discovered he had captured an image of the bullet whizzing past Trump was a “surprise” to him.

It happened after he was ushered into a tent and began sending photos of Trump’s defiant fist pump to an editor.

“I was like, ‘Oh, hell. I remember taking pictures of him when this happened. Let me go back and look.’ I started looking at it. I started sending them right away, and I called one of the editors and said, ‘Please look at these really closely. This might have been near the moment where he was shot,’” he said. 

“She called me back like five minutes later and said, ‘You won’t believe this.’ She goes, ‘We actually see a bullet flying behind his head, and I was like, ’Oh my gosh.'”

Mills said he captured the rally images with a Sony a1 camera. 

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“Doug Mills of The New York Times won the breaking news photography prize for his photos capturing the attempted assassination of President Trump last year, including an image in which a bullet can be seen,” the New York Times’ media reporter Katie Robertson reported as she touted three other other Pulitzers The Times won for stories on Sudan, Afghanistan and Baltimore.

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Fox News’ Taylor Penley contributed to this report.

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