Participant who witnessed assassination attempt former President Donald Trump said at his Saturday campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Daily Star that Trump’s clenched fists toward the crowd created a sense of placid among the audience, which was on the verge of panic.
Brady Knox (pictured above, left) said Star sat in the second row, “as close as you can get” to the former president, just 15 feet away, as Trump supporters in the front rows began to duck after the former president reached up to his ear and ducked under the podium.
The killer was killed on the spot by the Secret Service and has been missing ever since. identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. After the shooting, Trump confirmed that one bullet he pierced his right earbut on Sunday anyway came to Wisconsin to accept the Republican Party’s nomination for president at the Republican National Convention later this week.
Knox said Star was born and raised in Butler, where he visited family, but currently lives in Virginia and works as reporter Down The Washington Examiner.
Knox, who attended the rally with his mother, explained that he pulled her along when he realized the popping sounds heard by the crowd were not fireworks intended to “catch the president” but bullets.
He added that rallygoers around him remained on the ground for about 10 seconds after the shooting began.
“Then we saw Trump stand up,” Knox said. “When he raised his fist, everybody looked up at that moment, and that’s when everybody went crazy.”
Knox recorded a video of the incident and published on social media platform X, where he wrote that his video started “20-30 seconds after the shooting occurred.”
My footage of Trump getting up from the attempted coup (with a clenched fist and all) and being led away. I was standing in the second row
The video starts about 20-30 seconds after recording photo:twitter.com/tNLEXELw4l
— Brady Knox (@Brady_k6) July 14, 2024
Before Trump clenched his fist, Knox said: Star The incident immediately sparked thoughts of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. taken over shooting that claimed the lives of 60 people and became the bloodiest mass shooting in U.S. history.
“I thought it was like a shooting in Vegas, right? You know, he’s just going to start spraying the crowd and I’m this close to the podium,” Knox said.
He said Star“It was probably the only time in my life that I was actually afraid for my life for a moment. I thought, Oh my God, this guy might start shooting into the crowd.”
Knox explained that his uncertainty about the shooting subsided after Trump clenched his fist.
“I would say that kind of terror lasted about 20 seconds. Honestly, that was probably when Trump raised his fist.” He confirmed: “That’s when the emotions died down. That was kind of the signal that the shooting was over.”
Asked how many rally attendees saw Trump make a fist, Knox replied, “I would say basically everybody saw him make a fist.”
When the crowd was reassured about Trump’s health, Knox said: Star that the Secret Service asked those in the front rows to remain hidden until the former president was escorted off stage.
Minutes later, Knox said Trump supporters gathered at the rally began an evacuation that he described as “extremely orderly.”
Photos taken by Knox at the rally switch on another perspective of Trump, with blood on his face, raising his fist towards the crowd.
Hi everyone, I was at the Butler Trump rally about 15 feet away from Trump at the time of the shooting, I interviewed several people and took several pictures
It was pretty cluttered and everyone hit the floor pretty quickly so it was challenging to see what was going on. Secret… photo: twitter.com/QpW7KDv491
— Brady Knox (@Brady_k6) July 14, 2024
Knox also said Star that the Republican Party candidate for the US Senate, Dave McCormick, who confirmed the candidacy of the German company Political on Saturday, as he sat next to Trump and prepared to take the stage when the shooting broke out, he was “definitely in the line of fire.”
He explained that McCormick was seated in a spot where he had basic access to the stage, where he was “sitting in one of the front rows… bullets would be flying over his head.”
Knox said Star was impressed by the Secret Service presence at the rally preceding the shooting, explaining, “I felt very safe and protected.”
However, experts and connoisseurs have called for resignation at a federal agency after the assassination attempt.
By the end of the day Saturday, Tesla Motors and Space X CEO Elon Musk, former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino, and free speech activist and author Michael Shellenberger had publicly called for his resignation.
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Blank paper is the main reporter Tennessee Starand reports for Pennsylvania Daily Star AND Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email Tips [email protected].
