Trump supporters went from skeptical to scared as assassination attempt unfolded

Former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the presidential candidate was shot in the ear and a bystander was killed, sending the rally into chaos.

The Washington Examiner spoke with more than a dozen people at the rally following the shooting, who recalled the chaotic moments following the violence.

“My first reaction was kind of stunned,” Sean McMillan, who was about 20 rows behind the stage where Trump stood, said. “I kind of stood up and then everybody was getting down. And I got down because I was trying to see what was going on. So I thought maybe it was, there was fireworks, or something was going on. It was just a lot of chaos all at once. And then when I saw them tackle [Trump], I realized that it was gunshots that were going off.”

He noted a spurt of water and sparks flying by the stage, which he speculated were bullets hitting a hydraulics system and speaker.

One child interviewed by the Washington Examiner said she saw three muzzle flashes before Secret Service agents returned fire. The child’s mother, who declined to give her name, said everyone around her and her daughter “threw ourselves over the kids, and we stayed down.”

“And then as soon as we were going to clear to get up, everyone was crying,” she continued. “But we actually got a group of about like 40 people praying together for Trump and for the kids. Because [her child] was like, ‘Can we pray?’”

Several witnesses said they thought there were multiple shooters, with one or more possibly still at large. Officials later said the assassination attempt was carried out by a lone gunman. Others thought the shooter was in the bleachers to Trump’s right.

Though most were uncertain or confused as to where the shots were coming from, Anastasia Matchers, standing on the left side of the stage, quickly identified the shots were coming from a building to the left, later confirmed as having been where the gunman was positioned, some 400 feet from the former president.

Her sister, Karis Matchers, said she saw the counterfire from Secret Service snipers that killed the would-be assassin.

“So I look over, and then I look up at the snipers, and I see them, and they’re pointing their guns like aiming, like they’re about to shoot,” Karis Matchers said. “And I literally tell my dad, I say, ‘they’re about to shoot,’ and then they start shooting, and everybody drops down, and this girl fell on top of me, and my ears started bleeding.”

“And everybody, like people, they started crying, like they were bawling their eyes out,” Karis Matchers added. “And, yeah, nobody really knows what happened, but Trump got shot in the ear, and I think two people got shot in the stands in the left corner.”

Donald Holmes said he was about 20-30 feet from the former president when the shooting began, saying he heard about 10-12 gunshots, with some sounding different.

“All of a sudden, just bang bang bang, bang bang bang,” he said. “And then to the right of us, something either exploded, or the water cannon came off of the firetruck … We knew the snipers were on the roof over there shooting, but we were all hitting the ground. Everyone in front of us, everyone behind us, everybody hit the ground immediately.”

Holmes speculated the “explosion” was a speaker getting hit by a stray bullet.

Michelle Reiter was seated in the bleachers directly behind Trump and said that she didn’t take the shooting seriously at first.

“We heard the shots,” she said. “Everyone said ‘get down,’ kind of didn’t take it serious, because it sounded like fireworks to me. Then we saw like six guys surround Trump, his shoe came off, it was sitting there … Then we saw the Secret Service taping off the area.”

The one bystander who was killed was confirmed to be Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief from the area. Two others were seriously wounded and life-flighted to the hospital.

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Tanner Lussack, 16, was at the metal detectors when the shooting began. He said he started to run away when he first heard the gunshots but then turned back to help his mother.

As of writing, investigators still haven’t confirmed a motive from the shooter, who was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20.