Eyewitness account: Trump, Secret Service and audience acted admirably in history moment

BUTLER, Pennsylvania — The moments after shots rang out at former President Donald Trump ’s rally were chaotic, but the Secret Service , the audience, and Trump himself all acted admirably in a historic moment.

I was slated to interview the former president and fly with him to Bedminster, New Jersey, after the rally. Trump’s team had me in the buffer zone with two photographers. Before I was escorted into the buffer zone I spoke with him for a few brief moments before the rally. He was in really good spirits, he was very excited to be in Pennsylvania, and he said he was truly looking forward to our interview.

He walked down the stage, greeting and waving to people. He walked over to the podium, and he took in the cheers of the crowd. There were probably at least 30,000 people there, who had been in the heat for hours waiting for him.

He had probably only been speaking for maybe six minutes tops. I was stage right of him and standing when I heard the pop of the gunfire. At first, I thought I had tripped on something and caused an electrical problem, but by the second shot, it was clear it was gunfire. I saw the president go down and the first thing that he said was, “Get me my shoes.”

He got up with the help of the Secret Service. He did not need help walking but the agents formed a human chain around him so that there was nothing that got through. They were protecting him.

You could see he had blood on his face. He was bleeding from the ear.

It was very chaotic, but people were really smart. They immediately got down. They got down in their seats. They got down on the ground.

I watched them take the president off the stage and they stuffed him into an SUV before taking him to a local hospital.

They put about seven of us journalists in a holding area. We were told by a photographer that the shooter had been killed.

I talked to Sean Parnell, who said the person behind him was shot and died. Another person was shot, and he helped medically evacuate that person.

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