A New York Times photographer was awarded a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for his dramatic photos capturing the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The July 13 shooting stunned the nation, but also produced unforgettable images—none more iconic than the moment Trump, bloodied but defiant, raised his fist as Secret Service agents rushed him off stage. That image, and others, were taken by veteran Times photographer Doug Mills.
Among the photos that earned Mills the prestigious honor was one showing a bullet flying past Trump’s head—captured mid-air in a split-second frame. The shot was later identified while Mills was transmitting images to his editors from a nearby tent.
"I started looking at it... and I called one of the editors and said, ‘Please look at these really closely,'" Mills recalled in an interview with Fox News. Minutes later, the editor called back: "You won’t believe this. We actually see a bullet flying behind his head."
Mills was using a Sony a1 camera and said he was shooting with a wide-angle lens from just below the stage when the shots rang out. “I saw him reach for his ear. He grimaced, grabbed his hand, looked. It was blood. And then he went down,” Mills said. “I thought, ‘Dear God, he’s been shot.’”
The Pulitzer committee recognized Mills for his “extraordinary images under life-threatening conditions,” praising the clarity and emotion captured in a moment of national crisis.
In addition to Mills’ award, The New York Times won three other Pulitzers for its reporting on Sudan, Afghanistan, and Baltimore.