Trump rally shooting rocks Butler County community. ‘It’s such a sad day’
Brenda Slagle and Dan Taciuch were sitting in front of a television at a Jefferson Street home in Butler, watching former President Donald Trump speak Saturday, July 13, nearby at the Butler Farm Show grounds when they learned gunshots were fired at the event.
Only a short time later, they saw dozens of vehicles with flashing lights and sirens zoom past their home, situated near Butler Memorial Hospital.
“It was police car after police car,” Slagle said. “Boom, boom, boom.”
Former president and current presidential candidate Trump was quickly ushered off the stage following the gunshots, with blood visible on his face.
A statement from his campaign indicated Saturday that Trump was “fine.” Trump himself later took to social media saying he was “shot with a bullet” in upper part of his right ear, in a post late Saturday.
“It’s alright to disagree,” Taciuch said, “but it’s not alright to hate somebody, to do this.”
Taciuch, a Trump supporter, noted he has friends of varying political backgrounds. He had considered attending the event, but stayed home to avoid the crowd.
Slagle said she took phone calls from her friends who were at the event before seeing the emergency vehicles converge on Hospital Way.
“People were there to support who they want to support,” she said. “And now, this is just sad.”
Authorities identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, as the shooter who fired from a rooftop outside the rally venue before he was killed by the Secret Service.
The shooting is being investigated as an attempted assassination of the former president and presumptive Republican nominee, law enforcement officials told the Associated Press.
Into the evening, a vehicle with flashing lights blocked the Jefferson Street entrance, where Ash Nix, of Butler, stood with a sign reading, “Wishing Trump a long terrible recovery. Tots and Pears.”
“I was going to counterprotest the rally, but my husband feared violence,” Nix said. “When I heard the news, I thought I’d come out here, let him know how I feel.
“The only shame is if he died, he would have been seen as a martyr,” she continued.
Haley Dunbar, of Butler, was hiking and having fun geocaching with her significant other and two young children on the Butler-Freeport Community Trail when she began hearing multiple sirens in the direction of Butler Memorial Hospital.
She also noticed helicopters overhead and decided it was time to leave.
“We got out of the woods immediately,” Dunbar said.
She pulled up a scanner app on her phone and quickly realized there was a shooting and injuries at the Trump rally.
Then, a friend at the rally sent her a picture of someone who appeared to have been shot.
“It’s such a sad day for Butler County,” Dunbar said through tears.
She remained calm as she got her children into the car to drive home to safety.
“The kids were obviously alarmed by the sounds of the sirens, and I tried to diffuse as much as possible,” Dunbar said. “I said ‘We have to go home and let the dog out.’”
She said a helicopter continued to circle the hospital at 8:45 p.m. Saturday.
“If someone feels Trump is not appropriate for president, they could have just stayed away,” she said. “It’s a tragic day for Butler County. It’s too close for comfort.”
Melissa Forester, spokeswoman for Independence Health System, said all comments were being directed to the Trump campaign. She did not comment on how the situation was affecting the public. Butler Memorial Hospital is part of Independence Health System.
All ambulances responding to emergencies in Butler County were advised to take patients elsewhere shortly before 7 p.m., according to scanner traffic.
A motorcade left the facility shortly after 9 p.m.
On Sunday, Butler County commissioners Leslie Osche and Kimberley Geyer in a joint news release said “we are ... grateful to Independence Health System for their assistance throughout the entire day to care for the residents and visitors to our County, for caring for former President Trump, and especially for the other victims of this tragedy.”
Donna Lamison, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Butler County, said Sunday people may worry a traumatic event such as a shooting could occur again, making a person feel more anxious. While the effects may not be physical, they can take a mental toll on a person.
“It just gives people a feeling of anxiety, a feeling of not being safe. It just impacts people in so many ways,” Lamison said. “Being in a crisis situation and all the emotions that go along with that are sure to come up, and people are going to deal with that differently.”
The mental health crisis phone number is 1-800-292-3866, and people also can call 988 to connect immediately with a person.
