Eyewitness accounts are pouring in after former President Trump was injured in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The U.S. Secret Service said in a press release that the suspected shooter fired from an “elevated position” and killed at least one person and “critically injured” 2 others.
Trump was speaking when as many as five shots were heard and the former president grabbed his right ear and then went to the ground as Secret Service surrounded him. Trump soon reemerged and could be seen with blood on his cheek and right ear as he raised his arm defiantly and yelled “fight!” at his supporters.
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Brandon Christie, a witness at the Trump rally on Saturday, told “Hannity” that he initially mistook the “pop” of a gunshot as a speaker crackling but soon realized the severity of the situation as people began to scream.
He and his relatives quickly ducked down to the ground as one Secret Service member allegedly discharged his weapon several times in the direction of the shooter.
“There was just blood everywhere,” he said.
Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, Mayor Jondavid Longo offered his “front-row” account of the chaos shortly after shots were fired.
Longo, who was on stage when the incident occurred, said people came into the rally with smiles on their faces, but the tone outside did a complete 180 as the reality of the situation shifted into focus.
“I’m speechless,” he told Fox News correspondent Alexis McAdams. “All I can think of right now is this is representative of the vitriol and the hate a lot of people in the United States seem to have for people with conservative ideals and principles behind them, and I’m just sorry it’s come to that.”
Another eyewitness said she heard a noise that sounded like firecrackers before she and other attendees were ordered to get down.
“We huddled and we just started praying,” the eyewitness said. “The lady in front of me that laid on top of me, she was crying. I just said, ‘It’s going to be OK, honey.'”
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As Trump re-emerged with his fist in the air, the woman said other attendees raised themselves back to their feet.
“Like as a true leader, he was like, leading us,” she said.
Blake, a delegate who was close to Trump when shots were fired, said he was hoping the noise was a “joke” or fireworks.
“When I looked back towards the president, the Secret Service was actively tackling him to the ground, and at that point, I heard some other sounds, and I thought, well, this is gunfire,” he said.
Blake remained firm that he does not believe hostilities are as high as some believe in the United States, but he admitted he did not think anything like this would ever happen.
One male eyewitness proclaimed that he would have “taken a shot” for Trump and attempted to take a video of what was happening at the venue.
A female attendee with the man claimed that she saw smoke from the gunfire and quickly rushed into the crowd to find her son and daughter-in-law once the crowd was allowed to stand back up.
Another woman whose son was close to the attendee killed inside the rally appeared visibly shaken and emotional as she recalled the incident.
“As soon as we heard what happened, I called him immediately, and he just said, ‘I’m OK, I can’t talk right now,’ and he was on the ground.”
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The woman said she did not immediately identify the sounds as gunshots but knew instinctively that something was “wrong” and “not normal.”
“Instantly, people were running and screaming to get out, and we just didn’t know what to do,” she said.
Another attendee, who spoke with Reuters, said he was “horrified” by the violence.
“It’s stunning. It’s absolutely stunning, and it’s just going to drive people to be even more for [Trump]. I mean, especially when that picture comes out,” the man said as he fought to hold back tears.
One man at the rally told the outlet he was extrmely upset and expressed concern the incident could spawn more division in the United States.
“Everybody stood together and everybody screamed out the Father’s prayer and everybody prayed together,” a woman chimed in. “That was amazing. That was something that was beautiful.”
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Another man who was outside the Pennsylvania rally claimed he saw the perpetrator before shots rang out and tried to alert law enforcement.
“We noticed a guy crawling – bear crawling – up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away from us,” the man told BBC News, adding, “You could clearly see him with a rifle.”
He said they told law enforcement a man was crawling on the roof, and he began thinking that he didn’t understand why Trump hadn’t been pulled off the stage where he was speaking.
“Next thing you know, five shots ran out,” he said, telling the BBC reporter he was “100 percent” sure the shots came from the man he saw.
“We were telling the police, we were pointing at him for the Secret Service who were looking at us from the top of the barn,” he said. “Why was there not Secret Service on all of these roofs here? This is not a big place.”
He said law enforcement killed the man on the roof afterward: “Secret Service blew his head off.”
CBS’ Jake Rosen posted a video of his interview with an emergency room doctor who said he tried to save someone’s life in the crowd at the shooting.
“I heard the shots,” said the man, who was wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat and appeared to have blood on his shirt. “I thought it was firecrackers, to begin with. Somebody over there was screaming, ‘he’s been shot, he’s been shot.'”
He said the victim had a head shot and there was “lots of blood” and “he had brain matter.” He added he did CPR for him on a bench.
Another man told CBS News he was waiting for Trump to speak and noticed two officers “looking for something or somebody,” before spotting the shooter himself on the roof and alerting police.
He said other onlookers noticed the man on the roof as well and alerted police again.
“When I turned back is when the shots started and it took me a second or two to figure out exactly what it was, and then it was just getting out of there and helping some other person out with her child, and we got out,” he said.
A woman who was “directly in front of Trump” at the time of the shooting told NBC News about what she witnessed.
“I was directly in front of Trump, my seat,” she said.
“I was looking him in the eye. We heard the pops. Maybe three minutes into the rally, three to four minutes. I heard four pops, pop, pop, pop. The four Secret Service immediately jumped on the stage, and we saw him push President Trump to the ground.”
She said she could hear Trump talking about getting his shoes back on.
“His shoes must have come of when they dropped him down to the ground. The first thing he said, we could all hear it. ‘I have to get my shoes on first.’”And when he stood up, I’m looking at him forward, I see the red teardrop right here of blood. Fresh red blood. Just a little tear. Then when they got him up and they turned him, I could see the blood from the top of the ear to the bottom. Wasn’t gushing, but it was covered. And then he put the fist bump up. ‘Stay strong.’ And they walked him off.”
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