BUTLER TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Lacey Kessler of Cabot was among the thousands of people in the crowd during the Trump rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds Saturday. She was standing just 15 feet away from former President Donald Trump when she heard the gunfire just after 6 p.m. and ducked for cover.
“All of a sudden, I head pop, pop, pop, lots of gunshots and that’s when I hear, ‘Get down. Shooter,’” Kessler said. “Those Secret Service guys were pretty much pointing their guns at us and telling us to get down.”
Kessler captured the moments of sheer panic in the crowd and terror on her face. She could be heard on her cell phone video saying, “Trump is shot.”
“It was scary,” she said. “It was really scary.”
Ryan McIntyre was sitting in the VIP section when he said bullets flew over his head, hitting and killing former local fire chief Corey Comperatore who was sitting just feet away.
“The first shot definitely sounded like a firecracker like everyone said,” McIntyre said. “After the second and third shot that’s when a lot of us realized it was gunfire.”
Many people, including Felicia Petro-Straub and her husband David, came back to the area Sunday trying to wrap their heads around what happened 24 hours earlier.
During the terrifying ordeal, Petro-Straub said she turned to strangers next to her and grabbed their hands.
“I just started praying with these women. There was a younger woman and an older woman holding hands real tight and I’m like, ‘Let’s just pray,’” she said. “We’re on the ground and there’s people holding hands and I’m praying. It honestly just felt so surreal.”
Drone 11 flew over the Butler Farm Show grounds Sunday and saw FBI agents on the roof of the American Glass Research building where the alleged shooter was killed.
“There were hardly any police officers, and they were looking out toward the building where he was with their binoculars, and they didn’t shoot,” said Linda Green of Slippery Rock.
Chicora native Zach Scherer has been to more than 20 Trump rallies across the country. He said this was the first one where he didn’t think there was enough security.
“It was too big of an open area,” said Scherer. “We didn’t know if the shooter was in the crowd with us or where the shots were coming from.”
Scherer is now joining the calls for the country to come together.
“Democrat, Republican, Independent - at the end of the day we’re all American,” Scherer said. “Everyone needs to unite because no matter what type of event this happens at, this type of action is not called for. People were killed.”
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