Trump rally assassination attempt witness says ‘everybody hit ground,’ were left ‘stunned’ following gunfire
Fox News
A woman who was at former President Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday described the moment she and “everybody hit the ground” during the possible assassination attempt.
Saurabh Sharma, the president of American Moment, a Washington D.C.-based training nonprofit, told Fox News Digital that audience members initially thought the gunfire was fireworks and “instantly hit the ground.”
“I remember hearing two sounds. They were pretty light,” Sharma said. “We thought they were fireworks, but everyone instantly hit the ground. I think the president hit the ground as well. And the Secret Service obviously swarmed over him.”
She said that attendees started to look around, but others encouraged people to “stay down.”
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Sharma shared that she spotted the former president and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee waving to the audience and “pumping his fist.”
She said that he “seemed okay.”
“I couldn’t see blood from my angle,” she said. “I only saw the blood in the videos.”
The rally attendee said that the “real story” was to the left of the stage at Butler Farm Show grounds.
“They [Secret Service personnel] went down the stage behind where everything was set up,” she said. “There was a huge commotion in the bleachers.”
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“There was a lot of blood,” Sharma said. “You could see a lot of people that had blood on their shirts, and it looked like a body got carried out.”
Sharma said that the people who attended the event in the pivotal battleground state were left “stunned.”
“That whole rally was pretty, pretty stunned by the whole thing,” she said. “People weren’t really loud. They were muttering to themselves.”
“No one seemed freaked out either,” she said. “They were just in a little bit of a daze walking out. There was a single scream.”
Sharma added that the atmosphere following the gunfire was one of “stunned silence” rather than a “stampeding to leave.”
“But stunned silence was really the feeling. And on the walk out, everyone was pretty somber,” she said. “No one was in a rush or stampeding to leave.”
She said that people were left wondering if the former president was “okay” and a “couple of people were crying.”
Sharma said that one woman kept repeating, “They tried to kill him, they tried to kill him.”
“It was a pretty strange scene,” she said.
Sharma said that there are “no rules” in this election cycle, saying that it’s a “crazy, crazy time in the country.”
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“I think this is going to make the RNC have the gravity that it would have never had,” she said. “It’s one of those times in American history where all bets are off. There are no rules. And, I just hope that the president is completely unharmed at the end of this.”
“It’s just it’s a crazy, crazy time in the country,” she said.
The gunfire erupted onstage shortly after Trump began speaking at the packed rally in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
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The U.S. Secret Services said in a press release, that the suspected shooter fired from an “elevated position” and killed at least one person and “critically injured” two others.
The alleged shooter was killed by Secret Service personnel. The suspect’s identity has not been released.