ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Some of the most dramatic photos from the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump on Saturday were captured by an RIT graduate.
RIT alum Tom Brenner took the photo of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. surrounded by agents and rushed to safety. After sleepless, nonstop days, Brenner met with News10NBC Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean.
Brenner: “I grabbed my camera”
Brenner was in the traveling press pool. He graduated from RIT 10 years ago.
Saturday night, he was in a hallway outside the D.C. Hilton Hotel ballroom when he heard a crash of plates and gunshots. They were the same sounds heard by President Trump and the entire room.
“I grabbed my camera,” Brenner said.
Brenner took dozens of photos, including one where an agent stares right into his lens. “I think a woman in front of them all who was just very straight faced looking right at me like it was not her first time doing this,” Brenner said.
Brenner was back at the White House to get the president in the press room. Brean was struck by the photo of Secretary Kennedy.
“It made me think about his dad, in a hotel when shots were fired with an alleged assassin,” Brean said.
“And especially with the presence of all the agents around him, pushing him into a room nearby in a measure of safety I think was a shocking thing for him and echoes of former times, sadly,” Brenner said.
“It’s the immediacy from that image”
Brean: “What did you say to Tom?”
William Snyder, RIT professor: “Well I texted him and I just said ‘great job!’”
William Snyder is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and Brenner’s teacher at RIT. “This picture right here that I have to me is the most dramatic image from that,” Snyder said. The photo captures a secret service agent reaching for his gun, in the middle of yelling instructions and within arms reach of Brenner.
“It’s the immediacy from that image. It’s the intimacy of that image. I mean he could reach out and touch that secret service agent,” Snyder said.
RIT grads are capturing some of the most incredible moments. Evan Vucci took the famous photo of Donald Trump bloodies, surrounded by agents with his fist in the air after his attempted assassination in 2024.
Jacquelyn Martin caught Lindsey Vonn just before her crash at the Olympics.
“It’s something that’s taught at RIT, the great photojournalism program,” Brenner said. “That’s the first thing our great teachers there taught us — have your camera ready.”
More of Brenner’s photos
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