Posted the following on the Current Events board but thought some might find it interesting even though it violates the sacrosanct rule about football only. Follow it there if interested……..
Volunteered to work the rally. Spent four hrs Friday evening helping set up. Worked all day Saturday mostly carrying case after case of water into the crowd. It was in the 90s and humid so the Trump campaign bought 42,000 12oz bottles of water to hand out free. People were dropping all over and I helped evac a half dozen myself.
I was supposed to be sitting in the section where two people were hit, one of which died instantly with head wound. But had to be seated by 2:30 and Trump wasn’t scheduled until after five and didn’t want to sit there in the hot sun for three hrs. So kept working until five.
I saved one case of water and went into the VIP area to hand them out….. then just hung around there. Sneaky way to get a good spot. I was at Trump’s right side about 30 degrees to the side and 25 yards away. Never thought sneaking into the VIP section may have saved my life…..
Trump started talking and six minutes in the shooting started. People were screaming, hitting the ground, some taking videos, some even stood up looking for the shooter. I ducked down and could tell the snipers were returning fire. It was over in 10-12 seconds. Crazy.
I ducked for about 30 seconds, looked to where Trump had been taken down just in time to see him stand up. Crowd let out a huge cheer.
But I started moving and didn’t see him fist pump but heard the crowd chanting USA, USA, USA. Unbelievable that people were so courageous immediately after an assassination attempt with bullets cutting right over the crowd.
About that time I saw people in my section frantically trying to get help so I tried to work my way over but the ground was wall to wall people in fetal position, prone covering heads, people crying plus folding chairs everywhere. The wounded were about 20 yds from me but it was a struggle moving.
People were yelling at me to get down but I was confident the shooter was down since it stopped after I heard the return fire. As I moved kept asking people if anyone was hit but everyone said they were ok but most refused to move at all. I also had to disassemble a couple barriers. By the time I got to the scene a couple state troopers and some citizens were carrying out the body of the guy that died. There is a NBC News clip that you can see me looking around as they carried him out.
I looked right and there was a person down with a mid abdomen wound and 6-8 people helping so nothing more I could do as I am not a trained responder so I went around checking on other people laying on the ground. No else was hit.
Then SS and police told people to vacate the area so EMTs could get in. I then helped people get up off the ground, helped some elderly get out of the stands. Again, I had to disassemble more barricades so people could leave quicker. Many had blood on them. People crying, a couple throwing up, cops yelling directions. Chaotic scene.
Finally, slowly walked out through a very angry crowd. Just crazy. Hung around for hrs talking to people as I knew traffic would be insane. There were 35,000 people and just one small macadam road to get out. Never got on road until 9:30.
Got home at 10:30 and was up until 1:30 watching all the news broadcasts I could. Just unreal that I was in the middle of the biggest story on the planet. And watching Trump fist pump yelling ‘FIGHT!’ was insanely inspiring.
More to follow……
Volunteered to work the rally. Spent four hrs Friday evening helping set up. Worked all day Saturday mostly carrying case after case of water into the crowd. It was in the 90s and humid so the Trump campaign bought 42,000 12oz bottles of water to hand out free. People were dropping all over and I helped evac a half dozen myself.
I was supposed to be sitting in the section where two people were hit, one of which died instantly with head wound. But had to be seated by 2:30 and Trump wasn’t scheduled until after five and didn’t want to sit there in the hot sun for three hrs. So kept working until five.
I saved one case of water and went into the VIP area to hand them out….. then just hung around there. Sneaky way to get a good spot. I was at Trump’s right side about 30 degrees to the side and 25 yards away. Never thought sneaking into the VIP section may have saved my life…..
Trump started talking and six minutes in the shooting started. People were screaming, hitting the ground, some taking videos, some even stood up looking for the shooter. I ducked down and could tell the snipers were returning fire. It was over in 10-12 seconds. Crazy.
I ducked for about 30 seconds, looked to where Trump had been taken down just in time to see him stand up. Crowd let out a huge cheer.
But I started moving and didn’t see him fist pump but heard the crowd chanting USA, USA, USA. Unbelievable that people were so courageous immediately after an assassination attempt with bullets cutting right over the crowd.
About that time I saw people in my section frantically trying to get help so I tried to work my way over but the ground was wall to wall people in fetal position, prone covering heads, people crying plus folding chairs everywhere. The wounded were about 20 yds from me but it was a struggle moving.
People were yelling at me to get down but I was confident the shooter was down since it stopped after I heard the return fire. As I moved kept asking people if anyone was hit but everyone said they were ok but most refused to move at all. I also had to disassemble a couple barriers. By the time I got to the scene a couple state troopers and some citizens were carrying out the body of the guy that died. There is a NBC News clip that you can see me looking around as they carried him out.
I looked right and there was a person down with a mid abdomen wound and 6-8 people helping so nothing more I could do as I am not a trained responder so I went around checking on other people laying on the ground. No else was hit.
Then SS and police told people to vacate the area so EMTs could get in. I then helped people get up off the ground, helped some elderly get out of the stands. Again, I had to disassemble more barricades so people could leave quicker. Many had blood on them. People crying, a couple throwing up, cops yelling directions. Chaotic scene.
Finally, slowly walked out through a very angry crowd. Just crazy. Hung around for hrs talking to people as I knew traffic would be insane. There were 35,000 people and just one small macadam road to get out. Never got on road until 9:30.
Got home at 10:30 and was up until 1:30 watching all the news broadcasts I could. Just unreal that I was in the middle of the biggest story on the planet. And watching Trump fist pump yelling ‘FIGHT!’ was insanely inspiring.
More to follow……
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