BETHEL PARK, Pennsylvania – An attendee at former President Donald Trump’s Saturday rally in Butler, Pennsylvania told The Pennsylvania Daily Star that attendees feared the shooter stood among the crowd, and they felt relief only when Trump rose to his feet and raised his fist.
The rally goer is from Scott Township, a suburb seven miles southwest of downtown Pittsburgh. He said he and his friends viewed the rally about 200 feet away from Trump when Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate the former president.
The attendee realized the “pop, pop, pop” he heard were gunshots because one of the first bullets pierced “some sort of water tank” to Trump’s left. “As soon as I saw water gushing, I knew someone was shooting at Trump,” he said.
“By the third shot everyone knew what was happening and got down,” he added. “We thought the shooter was in the crowd.” He said that the Secret Service agent on the stage who scanned the crowd reinforced their belief that the shots were coming from the audience.
Brady Knox, another rally attendee, told The Daily Star on Sunday that the crowd stayed on the ground for around ten seconds after the shooting began. Despite the initial panic, video of the shooting shows the crowd relatively calm considering the circumstances. No one stampeded, and most attendees calmly left the premises after the Secret Service evacuated Trump.
The attendee explained that from where he stood he could hear the Secret Service saying “shooter down.” He identified the instance the Secret Service let Trump up and the former president started walking off stage as the moment everyone knew the shooter had been eliminated and it was safe to relax.
Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday night, “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.”
Trump’s presence of mind to duck when he did and to raise his fist to the crowd on his way off the platform likely prevented many in the crowd who didn’t yet know where the shots came from or if the shooter was dead from panicking.
The attendee showed The Daily Star video his friend sent him of those around him timidly getting up when the Secret Service let Trump stand. Once Trump pumped his fist, however, those around him boldly to their feet and broke into a thunderous roar.
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Jacob Grandstaff is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tennessee. Follow on X @JDGrandstaff.
Photo “Butler Trump Rally” by Brady Knox.
