An experienced photographer from The New York Times captured in a fraction of a second the bullet that grazed Donald Trump’s ear at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Doug Mills, a veteran photographer from The New York Times, was present at the Pennsylvania rally photographing Donald Trump when he captured an incredible image. In one of the frames, the bullet heading towards the former American president’s head is visible, which ultimately grazed his ear.
A simple ballistic analysis shows that capturing a bullet is possible, explained Michael Harrigan, a former FBI agent, currently retired, who worked for 25 years within the agency, as reported by the cited newspaper.
Mills used a Sony digital camera capable of capturing images at up to 30 frames per second. He took the photos with an exposure time of 1/8,000 s – extremely fast according to industry standards.
It was not only the camera used that allowed the capture of this incredible image. The other factor is the speed at which the bullet flew. Authorities recovered a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle used by the attacker at the scene on Saturday.
"Most cameras used to capture bullets in flight use extremely high-speed special cameras, not commonly used for regular photography, so capturing a bullet on a lateral trajectory, as seen in that photograph, would be a one-in-a-million success and almost impossible to achieve even if someone knew the bullet was coming," Harrigan explained.
"Under these conditions, if this image does not show the path of the bullet through the air, I don't know what else it could be," the former FBI agent added.
T.D.