Trump rally speaker describes putting hand on the head of attendee who was shot

WELL, ANDREW KELLY, I CAN TELL YOU WHAT. THERE’S A SENSE OF SHOCK AND DISBELIEF AND JUST PEOPLE WONDERING WHAT REALLY HAPPENED HERE. A LOT OF FOLKS JUST CAME DOWN HERE JUST TO COME TO A RALLY FOR FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP HERE IN BUTLER. UH, BUTLER FARM SHOW. BUT WE IT JUST TURNED INTO COMPLETE CHAOS. WE WERE ON THE MEDIA SECTION OF THIS VENUE, AND WE HEARD THOSE SEVERAL POPS AND WE TO MY CAMERAMAN JAX AND MYSELF, WE BOTH HIT THE HIT THE GROUND AS SOON AS WE GOT UP. EVERYONE THERE WAS KIND OF A CHAOS AND SHEER PANIC. UH, WE DID SEE A COUPLE OF FOLKS BEING CARRIED OUT. WE DID SEE FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP IMMEDIATELY BE SHIELDED BY SECRET SERVICE AND TAKEN OUT. HE DID GIVE A FIST UP IN SUPPORT TO HIS SUPPORTERS BEFORE HE WAS IMMEDIATELY TAKEN OUT OF THE VENUE. AND AFTER THAT, EVERYONE WAS JUST TOLD TO EVACUATE AND EXIT. WE’VE BEEN SPEAKING WITH FOLKS ALL AFTERNOON TRYING TO GAUGE WHERE THEY WERE WHEN THEY HEARD THESE POPS AND HOW THEY WERE FEELING DURING THAT ENTIRE TIME. A LOT OF FOLKS SAYING THEY WERE JUST THEY SAW THEIR LIVES FLASHED BEFORE THEIR EYES, AND MANY JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE THEIR LOVED ONES WERE OKAY. WE ACTUALLY SPOKE WITH TWO FIREFIGHTERS THAT CAME ALL THE WAY FROM STEUBENVILLE, OHIO, WHO TOLD US THEY GOT DOWN AND WAITED A COUPLE OF MINUTES, AND AS SOON AS THEY KIND OF PERKED THEIR HEADS BACK UP, THE NEXT THING THEY THOUGHT OF WAS JUMPING INTO ACTION AND HELPING IN ANY WAY THEY COULD. AND THAT WAS KIND OF THE TALE OF WHAT WE KIND OF SAW HERE TODAY. A LOT OF FOLKS JUST IN SHOCK OF WHAT’S HAPPENING AND OTHERS TRYING TO STEP IN AND HELP LAW ENFORCEMENT AND FIRST RESPONDERS IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE. WE DID SEE AGAIN, TWO FOLKS BEING CARRIED OUT THEIR CONDITIONS ARE UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME. WE ACTUALLY SPOKE WITH MAYOR, THE MAYOR OF SLIPPERY ROCK, WHO WAS ONE OF THE GUEST SPEAKERS FOR THIS EVENT, WHO WAS ONE OF THE PEOPLE CARRYING THAT WOMAN OUT OF THE VENUE. UH, SHE, ACCORDING TO HIM, SHE SEEMS TO BE OKAY. BUT OF COURSE, THAT IS UNKNOWN. AT THE TIME. BUT HE WAS JUST STEPS AWAY FROM THE FORMER PRESIDENT AT THE PODIUM, AND HE DID HAPPEN TO SEE SOME BLOOD ON THE SIDE OF HIS FACE. I’M ACTUALLY GOING TO KIND OF SHOW YOU WHAT’S LEFT OF THE RALLY SITE OVERALL. I’M GOING TO STEP OFF TO THE SIDE. JAX IS GOING TO SHOW YOU AT LEAST WHAT’S LEFT THIS ENTIRE AREA RIGHT HERE WAS FILLED WITH CARS AND VENDORS READY TO COME OUT FOR THE RALLY. AS ONE OF THE LARGER RALLIES. EVEN I’VE BEEN ABLE TO COME AND COVER JUST ABOUT THE SHEER NUMBER OF SUPPORTERS HERE. FOR THE FORMER PRESIDENT, AND JUST ABOUT THAT, IT HAS CLEARED UP. IF YOU LOOK FURTHER OFF INTO THE DISTANCE, SOME OF THAT THERE’S STILL TRAFFIC LEADING ON THE WAY OUT JUST TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF WHERE WE WERE, YOU SEE THAT AMERICAN FLAG HANGING UP ON THOSE TWO CRANES? THE STAGE WAS JUST BELOW THAT WHERE FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP WAS SPEAKING, AND WE WERE ABOUT MAYBE 100 YARDS, 100FT AWAY FROM THOSE FROM THAT PODIUM. AND JUST SO THAT’S GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF HOW FAR WE ARE NOW FOLLOWING THAT EVACUATION, UH, OUT INTO WHERE WE ARE STANDING AS SECRET SERVICE AND POLICE ARE INVESTIGATING THAT SCENE, YOU CAN SEE VENDORS JUST PICKING UP WHAT’S LEFT OF THEIR STANDS AND TRYING TO EXIT THE AREA IN A SAFE MANNER. OF COURSE, TRAFFIC IS IS GOING TO KEEP PEOPLE IN THIS AREA FOR A LONG, LONG TIME. BUT AGAIN, WHEN I’M SPEAKING TO FOLKS, A LOT OF FOLKS WERE JUST IN SHOCK. THIS EVEN HAPPENED AND WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED IF THE FORMER PRESIDENT WAS OKAY. IF ANYONE ELSE WAS HURT. WHEN I DID TELL HIM THE FORMER PRESIDENT IS EXPECTED TO BE OKAY. THERE WAS A LOT OF SIGHS OF RELIEF AND JUST A LOT OF QUESTIONS. WHY, WHY, WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? WHAT’S GOING ON? WHO WOULD DO THIS? AND A LOT OF WAVE OF SUPPORT, UH, OF COURSE, YOU KNOW, WE ARE STILL WAITING TO HEAR THE CONDITIONS OF THOSE OTHER FOLKS. BUT WE DO KNOW THAT THE FORMER PRESIDENT IS OKAY. YOU CAN SEE A STAND HERE BEING BASICALLY PICKED UP AND CLEANED UP AFTER WHAT WAS EXPECTED TO BE ALMOST A LONG AFTERNOON FOR THEM JUST TRYING TO SELL THEIR MERCHANDISE. BUT THEN THEY HAVE TO PACK UP AND HEAD OUT THE DOOR. YOU CAN SEE SOME OF THAT TRAFFIC OFF IN THE DISTANCE SLOWLY MOVING ITS WAY OUT OF THE VENUE AS THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE MAKE THEIR WAY OUT AFTER TRYING STANDING IN THE HEAT UPWARDS UNTIL 7:00 IN THE MORNING, 8:00 IN THE MORNING, AND WE GOT HERE CLOSER TO NINE, SET UP THE HEAT WAS COMING DOWN. A LOT OF FOLKS THERE WERE SOME ISSUES WITH THE FACT THAT IT WAS SO HOT AND PEOPLE WERE PASSING OUT AND NEEDING WATER. UH, AND THEN SHORTLY AFTER PRESIDENT TRUMP TOOK THE FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP TOOK THE PODIUM. HE SPOKE FOR A FEW MINUTES. AND THEN WE HEARD THOSE SEVERAL POPS. AND THEN AFTER THAT, IT WAS JUST A BLUR FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE IN THE IN THE VENUE, AS HE IMMEDIATELY GOT DOWN AGAIN, SECRET SERVICE IMMEDIATELY COVERED HIM. THE REST OF THE CROWD GOT DOWN AND THEN THEY SLOWLY USHERED HIM OUT AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE AND THEN TOLD THE REST OF THE VENUE TO PLEASE EVACUATE. UM, OF COURSE, WE ACTUALLY WERE TOLD TO EVACUATE BECAUSE THE THE AREA AND LEFT MOST OF OUR GEAR IN THE MEDIA CENTER JUST WHILE THEY WERE INVESTIGATING. AT THIS TIME. BUT AGAIN, A LOT OF THE MOOD THAT I’M HEARING IS SHOCK, SOMBER AND JUST A LOT OF QUESTIONS. BUT AGAIN, LIKE YOU ALL IN THE STUDIO HAVE CONFIRMED THAT FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP IS EXPECTED TO BE OKAY. AND I’M SURE WE’LL HAVE I’LL HAVE MORE AS WHAT WE SAW HERE TODAY. BUT FOR NOW,

Eyewitnesses who spoke to CNN on Saturday described an awful scene following a shooting at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which one person was killed and two others injured in what’s being investigated as a possible assassination attempt.A man who spoke before Trump at Saturday’s rally told CNN that he jumped over a barricade to comfort an individual who was bleeding after being shot.Rico Elmore spoke to CNN as he walked away from the rally stage. His white shirt was stained with blood from the victim, whom he said he did not know.Elmore described jumping over the barrier and putting his hand on the head of the attendee who was shot.“All we know is shots were fired, and then I jumped over the barrier and put my hand on the guy’s head that was profusely bleeding,�� Elmore told CNN.He said he didn’t know the attendee and he was “just a stranger.”Elmore was visibly shaken up but said he was not harmed. He said he only saw one attendee hit and did not see what happened to Trump.The former president said on Truth Social on Saturday that he was shot in the ear but his campaign said he was otherwise fine. The Secret Service said hours after the shooting that one rally attendee is dead and two others are critically injured. The gunman shot from outside the rally and was “neutralized�� by the Secret Service, spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.A law enforcement source and a police officer at the scene told CNN the shooter was positioned on a building rooftop just outside the rally venue. The source said the building was the same one where CNN had seen a heavy police presence following the shooting. The building would have been to Trump’s right as he spoke.Senate Republican candidate Dave McCormick was sitting in the front row of the event. McCormick told CNN he saw the “immediate attack on the president�� and a person behind him who appeared to be severely injured.McCormick told CNN that Trump had just announced him and invited him up to the stage, when about a minute later he heard “a series of shots �� about seven or eight shots �� just ‘pop, pop, pop.’”“It was all of a sudden just chaos. The Secret Service immediately covered the president, jumped on top of him, and the crowd immediately went to the ground,�� McCormick said.McCormick said he looked over his shoulder behind him and “it was clear that somebody had been hit.�� People around the man were trying to administer first aid, he said, as it took several minutes for medical assistance to get into the crowd because it was so dense.“But you can imagine with that kind of incident happening, it’s very hard to know what’s coming. �� It seemed like the shots were coming from my front �� so the president’s left �� which makes sense why the person behind me was hit. But I’m not sure if there were also shots coming from the other direction, so as you might imagine it was chaotic and confusing in the moment,�� McCormick said.McCormick said he and all of the roughly 15,000 attendees in the crowd went through metal detector screening before they entered the rally.Joseph Meyn told CNN that a man near him was shot.“Very shocking �� a lot of people just thought it was fireworks going off, I knew immediately it was gunfire,�� Meyn said.Meyn, a surgeon from Grove City, Pennsylvania, told CNN he helped carry the man out of the bleachers.“I was at the far right of the podium, where the people sit in the front. I was filming him (Trump) speaking on my phone. Just as I was panning back, I heard seven gunshots in rapid successions, in under two or three seconds,�� Meyn said.Meyn said he looked back in the direction the gunshots had come from. “I saw a man in the bleachers was hit directly in the head and died instantly. �� There was a woman who was hit in the hand and forearm, a noncritical wound.”He said he went over to see if he could render any aid, but another doctor was already helping the woman who’d been shot.“I helped carry the body of the man out of the stands. They took the body to the tent behind the bleachers,�� Meyn added.CNN reached Meyn as he was waiting to give a witness statement to the FBI. “They want the data off my phone,�� he said. “This is the first Trump rally I’ve been to. �� You don’t anticipate this stuff to go on, it’s pure insanity.��

A man who spoke before Trump at Saturday’s rally told CNN that he jumped over a barricade to comfort an individual who was bleeding after being shot.

Rico Elmore spoke to CNN as he walked away from the rally stage. His white shirt was stained with blood from the victim, whom he said he did not know.

Elmore described jumping over the barrier and putting his hand on the head of the attendee who was shot.

“All we know is shots were fired, and then I jumped over the barrier and put my hand on the guy’s head that was profusely bleeding,�� Elmore told CNN.

He said he didn’t know the attendee and he was “just a stranger.��

Elmore was visibly shaken up but said he was not harmed. He said he only saw one attendee hit and did not see what happened to Trump.

The former president said on Truth Social on Saturday that he was shot in the ear but his campaign said he was otherwise fine. The Secret Service said hours after the shooting that one rally attendee is dead and two others are critically injured. The gunman shot from outside the rally and was “neutralized�� by the Secret Service, spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

A law enforcement source and a police officer at the scene told CNN the shooter was positioned on a building rooftop just outside the rally venue. The source said the building was the same one where CNN had seen a heavy police presence following the shooting. The building would have been to Trump’s right as he spoke.

Senate Republican candidate Dave McCormick was sitting in the front row of the event. McCormick told CNN he saw the “immediate attack on the president�� and a person behind him who appeared to be severely injured.

McCormick told CNN that Trump had just announced him and invited him up to the stage, when about a minute later he heard “a series of shots �� about seven or eight shots �� just ‘pop, pop, pop.’��

“It was all of a sudden just chaos. The Secret Service immediately covered the president, jumped on top of him, and the crowd immediately went to the ground,�� McCormick said.

McCormick said he looked over his shoulder behind him and “it was clear that somebody had been hit.�� People around the man were trying to administer first aid, he said, as it took several minutes for medical assistance to get into the crowd because it was so dense.

“But you can imagine with that kind of incident happening, it’s very hard to know what’s coming. �� It seemed like the shots were coming from my front �� so the president’s left �� which makes sense why the person behind me was hit. But I’m not sure if there were also shots coming from the other direction, so as you might imagine it was chaotic and confusing in the moment,�� McCormick said.

McCormick said he and all of the roughly 15,000 attendees in the crowd went through metal detector screening before they entered the rally.

Joseph Meyn told CNN that a man near him was shot.

“Very shocking �� a lot of people just thought it was fireworks going off, I knew immediately it was gunfire,�� Meyn said.

Meyn, a surgeon from Grove City, Pennsylvania, told CNN he helped carry the man out of the bleachers.

“I was at the far right of the podium, where the people sit in the front. I was filming him (Trump) speaking on my phone. Just as I was panning back, I heard seven gunshots in rapid successions, in under two or three seconds,�� Meyn said.

Meyn said he looked back in the direction the gunshots had come from. “I saw a man in the bleachers was hit directly in the head and died instantly. �� There was a woman who was hit in the hand and forearm, a noncritical wound.��

He said he went over to see if he could render any aid, but another doctor was already helping the woman who’d been shot.

“I helped carry the body of the man out of the stands. They took the body to the tent behind the bleachers,�� Meyn added.

CNN reached Meyn as he was waiting to give a witness statement to the FBI. “They want the data off my phone,�� he said. “This is the first Trump rally I’ve been to. �� You don’t anticipate this stuff to go on, it’s pure insanity.��

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Trump rally speaker describes putting hand on the head of attendee who was shot

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