Eyewitness Accounts From the Trump Rally Shooting

Former President Donald Trump was hustled offstage by Secret Service agents after a shooting incident Saturday at a campaign event in Butler, Pa. 

Trump was speaking at the rally at about 6:15 p.m. when a series of loud pops rang out. The former President grabbed his right ear before diving to the ground. Agents rushed the stage, covering Trump, before ushering him into a waiting vehicle.

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Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”

“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through my skin,” Trump wrote. “Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.” 

Photos taken on scene showed the former President with an injury to his right ear and blood on his face. He pumped his fist and yelled "Fight!" to supporters as he was led away, prompting cheers from the crowd.

The suspected shooter fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position that was outside of the rally venue, according to Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman. One attendee was killed, and two others were critically injured, Guglielmi said in a statement. The suspected shooter was “neutralized” by a Secret Service agent and later died, Guglielmi said.

In his post on Truth Social, Trump said that nothing was known yet about the shooter. A video shared with TIME showed officers removing a body from the scene. 

James Sweetland, a retired emergency room physician, told TIME at the scene that he performed CPR on a man who had been shot in the head and had blood coming out of his mouth. “He wasn't breathing,” said Sweetland, 70, whose shirt was stained with blood. “I got other people to help me get him on one of the benches, and we got CPR going on him. I could not feel a pulse.” It was unclear if the man survived.

Scott Sosso, 47, was sitting in the bleachers with his son Luka, 18, when the shots rang out. “You hear pop, pop, pop,” Sosso said. “Ten seconds later, you hear ‘Someone is shot!' Next thing you know, everybody got down in our section.”

Darrin Mohney, 36, said the shooting sounded like fireworks. “Everybody just kind of froze, and the next thing you know, after the second round and the third shot, everybody just started hitting the deck,” he said.

Speaking to news cameras Saturday evening from Rehoboth, Del., President Biden said he had been “thoroughly briefed” by Secret Service and Homeland Security officials. “I have tried to get a hold of Donald. He was with his doctors. I plan on talking to him shortly”

“Look, there is no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden said. “It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons we’ve got to unite the country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.”

When a reporter asked if he thought it was an assassination attempt, Biden said, “I have an opinion, but I don’t have any facts.”

The Biden campaign said it was “pausing all outbound communications and working to pull down our television ads as quickly as possible,” according to a campaign official.

Former President George W. Bush expressed gratitude that Trump was safe “following the cowardly attack on his life.” 

Many at the scene were filled with disbelief and outrage at the massive security failure that allowed an armed individual to fire at a former President.

“I’m shocked that someone was able to get a shot off, but not that they attempted to do it,” says Danny Altmire, 56.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said he had contacted the Secret Service for a briefing and called on the agency's director Kimberly Cheatle to appear for a hearing. In a separate statement, he condemned what he called an "assassination attempt."

Republican Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, a finalist to be Trump’s running mate, suggested in a post on X that the Biden campaign’s rhetoric led to the incident.

“Today is not just some isolated incident,” Vance wrote. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all cost. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” 

Donald Trump Jr. told TIME in a text message that his father was “in great spirits. He will never stop fighting to save America, no matter what the radical left throws at him.” 

With reporting by Brian Bennett and Vera Bergengruen/Washington