Trump Shooting: Attendees describe chaotic scene as shots rang out at Pennsylvania rally

(Los Angeles Times/TNS) − Attendees at a rally outside Pittsburgh for former President Donald Trump described a chaotic scene in which shots rang out and Trump was thrown off the stage with blood running down his cheek.

“It’s chaos. I’m told it’s chaos,” Butler County District Attorney Richard A. Goldinger told CNN. “It’s really crazy right now.”

In an interview with CBS News, an emergency room doctor said he heard gunshots but initially thought they were firecrackers.

Then someone shouted, “He’s been shot! He was shot!”

The doctor, who was not identified in the interview, said he approached the man who had been injured and announced himself as an emergency room doctor.

“The guy had spun around and was stuck between the benches. He had a blow to the head… there was a lot of blood,” said the man, who had blood splattered on his white T-shirt. “I did CPR, chest compressions and breaths for him.”

As he spoke, an emergency helicopter flew in the distance.

Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick was sitting in the front row at the rally when he heard gunshots. The Republican told Politico that someone behind him appeared to have been shot, but he was unsure of the extent of the injury.

The alleged shooter is dead, as is another person who attended the rally, Goldinger told CNN.

A BBC witness said he saw a man with a rifle “bear crawling” on the roof of a building about 50 meters from where he was watching Trump at the rally. The suspect was on the roof for at least three or four minutes before gunfire erupted, the witness said.

The witness said he was not inside the rally, but heard Trump speak from a field adjacent to the rally at Brenckle’s Farms and Greenhouses in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“I could see him clearly with a rifle, absolutely. We’re pointing at him,” he told the BBC. “The police are down there running on the ground … they didn’t know what was going on.”

After the suspect opened fire, the witness said he saw the Secret Service shoot the suspect, crawl to the roof and make sure he was dead.

The witness, who was wearing a red Trump 2020 visor, asked why the Secret Service didn’t remove Trump from the stage in those few minutes.

“I’m thinking: Why is Trump still talking? Why didn’t they take him off the stage?” he said. “I’m standing there pointing at him (the suspected shooter) for two, three minutes.

“Why isn’t the Secret Service on all these rooftops here?” he said. “I mean, this isn’t a big place.”