Butler, Pennsylvania, July 2024 – A man attending former President Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday recounted the harrowing moment he saw another attendee fall to the ground, dead, after being shot in the head.
NBC News spoke with the witness, identified only by his first name, Joseph, who described the chaos when shots rang out just moments after Trump began speaking.
Trump posted on Truth Social that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.” Blood was seen on his ear and the right side of his face, and he went to the ground after the shots were fired.
Trump is safe and expected to survive, according to two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter.
A spectator was killed and two others were critically injured in the shooting, the Secret Service confirmed in a statement. The suspect was killed.
Joseph said he was sitting in a set of bleachers at the far left of the podium when he heard “several gunshots” ring out. He saw a man a couple of yards away fall to the bottom of the bleachers after being shot in the back of the head.
He described the scene as “rather chaotic” as he tried to determine where the gunshots were coming from. Joseph noted it seemed the shots were fired from behind the bleachers and that the man was hit from behind, in the back of the head.
Joseph said the man appeared to have been killed instantly.
