In the wake of the attempt on Donald Trump’s life at a rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend, another unlikely shooting video has resurfaced – and it’s surprising the internet.
The world was shocked over the weekend when Trump was shot in the ear after suspected shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire. One spectator was killed and two were seriously injured, while Crooks was shot dead at the scene. Trump described the assassination attempt as a ‘surreal experience’ in an interview with the New York Post.
Now, a resurfaced video shows what was first thought to be an assassination attempt on King Charles (then, Prince Charles), during an event in Sydney, Australia in 1994 – although this idea was later dismissed when it emerged the 'shooter' was firing blanks and apparently protesting about the treatment of Cambodian asylum seekers being held in detention camps in Australia.
Naturally, the resurfaced video has generated lots of interest. Search for ‘Prince Charles assassination attempt’ is up by 550% on Google, and the clip has been widely circulated on X. Earlier this week, Buckingham Palace confirmed that King Charles had written privately to Donald Trump after he survived the assassination attempt. The palace has not provided details about the contents of the letter, but the sentiments are reportedly in keeping with those expressed by Keir Starmer over the weekend, according to the BBC.
As the resurfaced shooting video of Prince Charles continues to get people talking, here’s everything we know about what happened to the future king in Australia in 1994…
What happened to King Charles in Australia in 1994?
The then-Prince Charles was visiting Darling Harbour in Sydney for Australia Day on the 26 January 1994. He was getting ready to give prizes to school children in front of a crowd of 20,000 people when 23-year-old David Kang fired two blank shots. Kang got up onto the stage, appearing to lurch at the Prince, before tripping and being tackled by bodyguards. However, he still managed to get just a few feet away from the future king.
Remarkably, Charles seemed to stay calm throughout the whole ordeal. Ian Kiernan was one of the men who tackled Kang to the floor, and he told the LA Times that Charles was as ‘cool as a cucumber’ during the incident.
Later, the Australian prime minister Paul Keating said he was ‘embarrassed’ about the incident, but dismissed the idea that it was an assassination attempt. ‘Prince Charles is a good friend of this country, and he should be treated with the respect and dignity that a good friend deserves,’ he said in a television interview at the time. ‘His control in the circumstances, I think, reflected the professional attitude that he has...the important thing to record about this is that it was not an assassination attempt. It was a political demonstration.’
Who is David Kang?
David Kang fired two blank shots at Prince Charles during the event in Sydney. Kang, who was 23 at the time, was a university student and he was apparently protesting about the treatment of Cambodian asylum seekers being held in detention camps in Australia. He fired the shots from an estimated six metres away, before he was tackled by security.
Kang was found guilty of threatening unlawful violence and sentenced to 500 hours of community service. In 2005, when it was announced the then-Prince Charles would be visiting Australia again, a newspaper tracked Kang down and discovered he was a qualified barrister.
He told The Sydney Morning Herald: ‘What happened 11 years ago was an extremely traumatic experience and I have certainly moved on in my life and now I have become a barrister here in Sydney,’ adding ‘to think about it even now unsettles me a little bit...what happened back then was extremely traumatic and the effect it had on my family was deeply upsetting.’