2024-07-14 23:08:13
A witness who attended a Donald Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, says he clearly saw blood on the former president when shots rang out at the event on Saturday afternoon.
Blake Marnell, 59, of San Diego, a supporter wearing a “brick suit” in support of “Trump’s wall” on the Mexican border, told The Guardian newspaper what it was like as he sat “front row center with a few friends watching the president language’ in western Pennsylvania.
“He talked about immigration. He was showing slides on the big screen, the Jumbotron. I was looking at him and then I heard some noises,” he said in a telephone interview, noting that he “detected that they were coming from the left because I was looking directly at the president.”
Mr. Marnell noted that he did not know that those were the sounds that were later reported to be gunshots, adding that he had never had any training that would have allowed him to identify shots from firecrackers or anything similar.
“I was hoping it was a joke, that it was a bad joke,” Marnell said, adding that he saw the Secret Service “basically take Trump to the ground.”
Marnell continued, “Then I heard a few more sounds that I thought were gunshots, based on what the Secret Service was doing. I crouched down, and then, seeing that there was no more noise, stood up a little and tried to pay attention to what they were doing just beyond the platform.
I heard Secret Service agents talking. I didn’t hear any call for medics. I could hear them starting to coordinate, “let’s get ready to move it,” countdown. And then they took him out.”
B. Marnell said that he was “very afraid that they would carry D. Trump, but he “stood up and shook his fist decisively.”
“I saw blood above his right ear,” the witness said. “I can’t say where it came from.” He might have injured his ear when they (security agents) pulled him down. He could have hit the podium. It could have been from a shot or a ricochet. I have no idea where it (the blood) came from.”
“You could clearly see the blood,” he continued. “I can’t even tell if it was his blood; a secret service agent could have cut his hand and bled out Trump’s face by touching it… I was optimistic based on the fact that he was strong, that he was fighting with his fist, that they (security) didn’t take him out very quickly, that they let him do that , while he was there to protect him. Just an incredible moment.”
Mr. Marnell added that he thinks the United States needs to learn to “resolve differences better” and that this is “not the right way to go.”
“No one believes this is the way. It was hard to react when I didn’t know how serious it was. I prayed for him, as did many people. We concentrated, said the man. “We were praying for his safety, I was cautiously optimistic based on how I saw him leave, but you can’t always tell.”
Another rally attendee, who described himself to CBS News as an emergency room doctor, said he walked toward a voice that said, “He’s been shot.”
A rally attendee, whose shirt was stained with blood, said he saw a man with a gunshot wound to the head who had turned around and was “stuck between the benches”. He said he tried to give CPR to the victim, who at that point had to be loaded into a medical helicopter.
Painted clothes „The Guardian“ inf.
2024-07-14 23:08:13