An Arlington-based photographer has won a Pulitzer Prize for his photos of last summer’s assassination attempt on President Donald Trump.
Doug Mills, a lifelong Arlington resident who discovered his love of photography at the Arlington Career Center, took home the honor this month for photos including a “one-in-a-million” shot of a bullet in midair — an instant before it hits Trump’s ear.
“I still can’t believe it, even when I look at the picture, how remarkable that image is, because it obviously proves that he was shot at,” Mills told ARLnow, referring to the photo in which the bullet appears as a gray line.
This is Mills’ third Pulitzer, following prizes for team coverage of the Clinton/Gore campaign and the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
The 65-year-old New York Times photographer, who currently lives in Cherrydale, credits his recent award on a wide array of factors.
Luck. Decades of experience. The advice of a mentor who captured the Ronald Reagan assassination attempt in 1981.
All that, and a hardwired “journalism instinct” that Mills began developing as a sports photographer at Wakefield High School in the late 1970s.
“The sports photography really kicked in, to continue to keep shooting, you know, keeping my finger on the trigger and trying to make some sort of peak action,” Mills told ARLnow. “And a couple of my colleagues have joked with me about, well, there’s no more peak action than that — catching a bullet flying behind the president’s head.”
Capturing history
Mills wasn’t trying to document a shooting when he took the iconic photo.
He was in Butler, Pa. the afternoon of July 13 to photograph Trump at a rally. He recalled the wind blowing, the sun setting and an American flag flying in the background as the presumptive Republican nominee addressed a crowd.
Mills was trying to capture Trump gesturing toward a chart when shots rang out.
At first, he said, he didn’t realize what was happening.
“You know, I don’t own a gun,” Mills said. “I’ve never heard an AR-15 fire before, so I didn’t know whether it was a firework or a motorcycle.”
Still, the photographer kept his finger on the trigger as the history-making scene played out. He recalled Trump falling to the ground, staff yelling for spectators to get on the ground and security rushing in.
“One guy was pulling on my pant leg to get down,” he said. “And I just — you know, the journalism instinct jumped in.”
Mills didn’t get down. Instead, he maneuvered to capture another striking image of Trump pumping his fist in the air before being whisked away.
After that, the photographer said Secret Service hustled the press out of what had become a crime scene. Surrounded by shocked staffers, Mills began sending images from his camera to his team at the New York Times.
Looking at the sequence of photos, the newsroom quickly confirmed that Trump had, in fact, been shot. In the moment, though, Mills didn’t realize that he had actually captured a photo of a bullet in midair.
“An editor about five minutes later called me and said, ‘Doug, I need to talk to you about something,'” he said. “‘I was like, what’s up?’ And she said, ‘Listen. We think you have a picture of a bullet passing behind his head.’ And I got chills.”
A product of Arlington
Compared to other photographers capturing the dramatic moment, Mills had something of a leg up. He used to work with Ron Edmonds, a photojournalist who won a Pulitzer for his photos of the attempted Reagan assassination.
While working at The Associated Press, Mills said he spoke often to Edmonds about that moment, asking why he didn’t turn away when the shooting began.
“He said, ‘I don’t know. I just felt like, when the shots rang out, I kept my finger on this trigger and I moved forward. I moved forward, rather than going down or moving back,'” Mills said.
He said he took that advice to heart.
Beyond that, Mills said his background in sports journalism makes him intuitively zero in on action. He got his start in sports photography back in high school at Wakefield, and continued covering games while studying at Northern Virginia Community College.
Mills also credits the Arlington Career Center for helping him discover his passion for photography. He likes to promote Arlington, and the Career Center in particular, when he meets people from elsewhere.
“When I tell people who aren’t from the area about the Career Center, they marvel at the fact that it is such a unique opportunity,” he said.
Despite all that, looking back at his photos of the shooting, Mills admits “there was a hell of a lot of luck involved.”
“I don’t mind that,” he said, “because I do feel like you make your own luck, and I think I was prepared.”
A journalist with the president’s ear
Beyond winning him a Pulitzer, Mills said his photos of the assassination attempt also appear to have earned him Trump’s respect.
The photographer recalled the candidate flagging him down at the Republican National Convention, just days after the shooting, to ask him how he was doing.
“He said, ‘Well, that was a hell of a picture you took,'” Mills said.
While he was in the Middle East with the president earlier this month, Mills said, Trump introduced him to world leaders, telling them that he’d won a Pulitzer.
“He’s said many times, ‘He’s the world’s greatest photographer. Unfortunately, he works for the New York Times,'” Mills said.
He takes the flattery in stride. While the prize marks a high point for any journalist’s career, he says his work is by no means over.
Above all, the photographer takes pride in his role in helping to document a historic event, albeit a tragic one.
“I’ll never forget it,” he said. “It’s the ultimate award and the ultimate recognition.”
