The spectator killed Saturday in the shooting of Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania “died instantly” after being “hit in the head,” according to a witness interviewed by NBC News.
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“We heard several shots, the man next to me was hit in the head, he died instantly and fell at the foot of the stands,” said Joseph, whose last name was not given.
“A woman was shot in the forearm and hand. From that point on, it got pretty chaotic,” he said.
“President Trump was shot in the ear, just before the Secret Service intervened,” he added, specifying that the shots had first hit people in the audience before the former American president was hit.
According to him, the deceased victim was “in the path of the shots” between the alleged shooter and the ex-president.
“My feeling is that most people thought it was a joke at first, it looked like fireworks. But I saw the man get hit in the head, the woman get hit in the forearm. I knew right away it wasn’t just fireworks,” said Joseph, who said he heard seven blasts.
A second anonymous witness, who said he was an emergency room doctor, told a CBS reporter that he tried to help one of the victims.
“Someone over there was screaming that he had been shot. […] so I walked over. I said, ‘I’m an emergency room doctor, let me help you,'” he said, wearing a blood-stained white T-shirt, in a video widely shared on X.
“The guy turned around and got stuck between the benches. He had a bullet in his head,” he added, specifying that there was “a lot of blood” and “brain matter.”
Two other people were injured, according to a statement from the Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting major political figures in the United States.
It was Donald Trump’s last rally before the Republican Convention from July 15 to 18, where he is to be officially nominated as the Republican Party’s nominee to face Democratic incumbent Joe Biden in November’s election.