Before former President Donald Trump’s remarks were cut off by the gunshots at his rally Saturday, Malphine Fogel, mother of international teacher Marc Fogel — who is approaching three years behind bars in Russia — was meant to join the presidential candidate on stage to talk about her son.

Malphine Fogel had requested an audience with Trump as he made his campaign stop at the Butler Farm Show grounds, and she was set to receive it.

Earlier that day, Marc Fogel had called his mother from a prison hospital in Russia after weeks of no contact.

Referencing the former president and GOP nominee, Vicki Iseman, spokesperson for the Free Marc Fogel campaign who was in the room, asked the Butler native if he had a message for Trump.

“Please Mr. President,” Fogel began. “I am thankful that you’ve taken the time in what is probably a busy schedule that I can’t even fathom to hear my mother’s thoughts and prayers …”

“I am just in urgent need of being with my family, and I’m in urgent need of somebody that has the bravery and the power to get something done because I am wallowing in a lot of difficulty,” he said. “I’m almost 63 years old and nursing incredible health challenges in my spine, and I would love to be able to get healthy again, and play rounds of golf again, and be a normal person again.”

“Anything you can do to help that, I will pay you 100 times over with my thanks and with my actions, and I would just love that opportunity,” Marc Fogel said. “I thank you over and over and over again for your time.”

The recording stops there, intended to be played for Trump personally, Iseman said.

Marc Fogel, who will turn 63 in two weeks, has yet to be recognized by the Department of State as wrongfully detained, which has impeded progress in his case, his mother said.

The Butler Township resident said Trump assured her three times with a thumbs-up that he would bring her son home when he met with her before the rally, which Malphine Fogel attended to spread awareness about Marc’s case.

Malphine Fogel’s request to Trump was to classify her son as wrongfully detained, if elected president, and to include him in any deal that includes Evan Gershkovitz, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal who was arrested on espionage charges.

“I’m afraid they will leave (Marc) out,” she said. “Nobody talks about him very much.”

Malphine Fogel said her son is currently in a prison hospital, being treated with injections without a translator. He has chronic back pain and underwent knee surgeries, a rotator cuff surgery and a hip replacement before his arrest at the Sheremetyevo Airport on Aug. 14, 2021, for possessing less than an ounce of medical marijuana.

Marc Fogel had taught in international schools around the world and was in his final year of teaching at the Anglo-American School of Moscow when he was arrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

“ … I told (Trump) that (Marc) was (arrested) for the same reason as (WNBA player) Brittney Griner, and she got released after 10 months,” Malphine Fogel said. “And we told him we don’t want special treatment — we want (Marc) to be treated the same as Brittney Griner was treated. They were convicted under the same statute.”

Ultimately, Iseman said there was no time to play the recording for the former president due to time constraints. Trump was slated to be on stage at 5 p.m. and began addressing the crowd about an hour later. She said she sent the recording to staffers with the Trump campaign.

Before Trump took the stage, combat veteran and author Sean Parnell, as well as U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick, mentioned Fogel in their speeches.

Malphine Fogel has previously said she has not heard about her son from either the U.S. State Department or President Joe Biden, who has previously called for the release of other American nationals detained in Russia, despite the family’s pleas to the president.

When the gunshots rang about six minutes into Trump’s speech, Malphine Fogel’s first thoughts jumped to fireworks.

“I didn’t realize what was going on,” she said. “I thought they were firecrackers. I thought, how stupid for someone to bring a firecracker to a rally. Then we realized they were gunshots, and people got down.”

Sitting in the first row at ground level next to Iseman and Christine Toretti, a Republican National Committee member, Malphine Fogel said she saw Trump’s right ear bleed.

She said she remembers the scene in slow motion: she turned around to see people pointing and saw blood. Iseman said she was unsure if the shooter had been behind her and had been tackled or if there was a second shooter. The man on the ground would later be identified as Corey Comperatore.

Malphine Fogel said Parnell, McCormick, Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, and Rep. Dan Meuser, R-9th, rushed over to help her, Toretti and Iseman take cover.

“They actually tried to protect us,” she said. “They yelled, ‘Get down, get down.’ They were really exposed. I didn’t realize how much nerve that must have taken with a man killed about 20 to 25 feet behind us.”

Later, Iseman said that as McCormick and Kelly were told to leave by security, they refused, instead choosing to accompany the women out of the farm show grounds.

“They said, ‘We can’t leave Mrs. Fogel,’” Iseman said. “They wouldn’t leave.”

The entire way to her car, Malphine Fogel said Kelly didn’t leave her side, walking her from the grounds to the parking lot. As they walked away from the scene, the congressman came across an empty wheelchair, wheeling her the rest of the way, she said.

“It was surreal,” Malphine Fogel said about the shooting. “It takes a while to sink in. It was an unbelievable experience. Thinking back, it’s even more gripping than when you are going through it.”

“It’s sort of unreal, I suppose,” she said. “The longer that (time) goes on, the easier it is to think about it. I don’t like thinking about it. I’m disappointed it happened, and I’m disappointed it happened in our city.”