Trump supporters were hoping for a chance to hear the presidential candidate explain the chaos that erupted after an assassination attempt opened fire at a Pennsylvania rally.
“The first thing I saw was them starting shooting,” one man told The Washington Post, pointing to the rooftop where the suspect fired eight shots at Trump.
Shots rang out while Trump was speaking at an outdoor rally in Butler, and he put his hand to his right ear before being shoved to the ground by Secret Service agents.
Other members of the agency’s counterterrorism unit “neutralized” the would-be assassin and killed him, insiders told The Washington Post.
But the action was too late: the gunfire killed one spectator and seriously injured another.
Other witnesses desperately tried to warn police that a rifle-wielding gunman had been crawling on the roof just before the shooting began.
“You could clearly see he had a rifle,” said one man wearing a MAGA 2020 hat. He told BBC News.
“We’re pointing at him, police are running around on the ground below.
“We were like, ‘Hey, this guy’s on the roof with a rifle,’ but the police were like, ‘Huh?’ They didn’t know what was going on.”
Witnesses claim he and friends were arguing for several minutes while Secret Service agents looked on, and did not take action until five to eight shots were fired, and that they were “100 percent” sure the shots came from the man with the rifle.
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“He was there for a few minutes, at least three or four minutes. We pointed him out to the Secret Service, who were watching us from the top of the barn. They were watching us the whole time.”
Only after the gunman opened fire did the police neutralise the threat: “They blew his head off.”
Chaos erupted in the arena and about half a dozen Secret Service agents swarmed over to shield Trump from the gunfire after a bullet appeared to graze his ear.
Sources said Trump was in “fear for his life” and had blood dripping from his face.
“They tied him up,” a man wearing a blue shirt and a Pittsburgh Pirates hat, who asked not to be named, told The Washington Post.
“At least I saw that, but I don’t know if they actually attacked Trump,” he added.
“But there was blood on the bleachers. Someone shot the guy. I don’t know who it was.”
Another witness said he tried twice to warn officers of the gunman’s presence before shots rang out.
A rally attendee, whose identity has not been released, told CBS News that he was waiting for Trump, like others, when he noticed a suspicious figure in the sky.
“I saw a man on the roof of a building going through the buildings so I told the officers he was up there. When I got back to my location I heard people were still looking at him. … I went back to tell the officers that if he got there they would see him. The moment I turned my back the gunfire started.”
A third witness said he heard shots ring out and spectators ran for cover.
“We heard six or seven gunshots and then we saw Trump fall and then we fell too because we didn’t want to get shot,” said the man, who declined to give his name.
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Trump appeared suddenly and pumped his fist once and for all, eliciting cheers from the rally.
As Trump got into his SUV, the crowd chanted “USA! USA! USA!”
“We witnessed someone try to assassinate our former president and hopefully our next president,” rally attendee Scott Sosso said.
“He was talking about the Border Patrol and then we heard the first shots,” rally attendee Nicole Baro said. “And I just yelled, ‘Sniper, sniper!'”
But emotions among the crowd were divided: The Post saw dozens of spectators sitting near blood-stained stands, crying and comforting each other.
Several men were angry at the media and shouted “civil war.”
The identity and motive of the shooter remain under investigation.
