CT brothers ran for cover during attempted assassination at Trump rally

BUTLER COUNTY, Pa. (WTNH) — A Quinnipiac University student and his brother were in the crowd at Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday.

Tyler and Jake Hoke ran for cover as the shots rang out. The brothers happened to be visiting a friend in the Pittsburgh area and decided to check out the rally.

“It doesn’t matter which side of the spectrum you’re on, I think Trump is a very interesting character,” Tyler said.

Tyler is vice president of the Republican Club at Quinnipiac University. He said there was a lot of security- including visible sniper teams- at the rally, but Trump’s speech kept getting delayed and those snipers looked agitated.

“The snipers that were behind him to the right, they were looking in some weird direction and to the right, and I remember that confused me,” Tyler said.

About six minutes into Trump’s speech came the first pop.

“My first expectation was it was going to be a firework,” Jake said. “I looked to my left and looked up to just try and see the firework, and it wasn’t until the second shot that I realized it wasn’t a firework.”

Instead, the sound was Thomas Matthew Crooks shooting at the stage, and then law enforcement shooting back.

“The first thing we ran to was a medical tent right around the side,” Jake said. “We hung out there for probably 20 to 30 seconds until the snipers stopped shooting.”

“You never know what could have happened,” Tyler said. “That shooter might not have been aiming for Trump. He might have been aiming for the crowd. We were scared.”

It was a long, somber walk back to the parking area for a crowd that didn’t know how seriously the former president was hurt.

“Like, everybody was just confused and in awe,” Tyler said. “Nobody knew what the hell just happened.”

Now that we know what happened- and the Hoke brothers know how close they came to the gunfire- they said political tensions need to cool down.

“I think both sides need to come together and recognize the issues that happen within society and work together to try and fix them,” Tyler said.

Because nobody wants to witness what they saw Saturday.

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