Original subtitles

Good evening. I'm Adriana Diaz. This is a

the air live tonight.

Moments after shots have rung out at a

rally where President Trump was addressing the crowd.

Our Scott mcfarlane is there. I'm going to bring him in tonight.

But the scene has been described as chaotic.

Several shots were heard, President Trump hit the stage.

Secret service came in and we're going to bring in Scott

mcfarlane to let us know what he has seen and heard.

Scott

Adrian.

It was a series of explosive sounds just

about five minutes into the president's rally.

The former president's rally here in Butler County, Pennsylvania.

We saw the secret service rush the podium when the noises began

move President Trump, former President Trump off the stage and when he emerged,

he appeared to have some blood somewhere near one of his ears.

He raised his fist in defiance

and moved with the secret service details to some type of

motorcade vehicle and this rally has since ended.

This was about

605 on the East Coast.

The series of explosive noises shuttered through this crowd.

So many of the thousands of people here went to the ground

as

law enforcement

appeared to be some form of paramilitary or secret service detail.

Rushed to the left side of the stage behind former President Trump,

appear to move someone or something out of the way.

And now this crowd, this rally crowd is departing.

The former president has been moved off site. A series of explosive noises.

Five minutes into the former president's rally here near Pittsburgh.

He appeared to emerge

defiantly with his fist in the air but with some

type of blood coming near one of his ears,

we working to get more information right now. But I can tell you this crowd is

agitated.

They are

at

some point defiant. Some are refusing to leave. Some are in tears

but this rally appears over Adriana.

It looks like a chaotic scene there in Pennsylvania, Scott.

Just horrific news and this is a crowded area with,

I'm sure what was very heavy security Scott.

Can you explain to me what kind of security people

need to go through just to get to these fairgrounds?

You need to be screened to enter this area.

We all had to go through magnetometers that to have our bags checked,

had to have our electronics checked.

There is visible secret service detail. You can see

it in each corner

of these fairgrounds in Butler County, Pennsylvania.

I can tell you when the series of explosives went off.

Some of us were confusing it for what would sound like firecrackers,

but

it was quite clear to the crowd immediately that there shouldn't

be firecrackers going off here and so many people took cover.

We jumped beneath the rafters upon which I'm standing, which is behind the seat,

part of this crowd.

Others just hit the deck,

got into the grass.

The former president was,

you may see this better than me from the footage.

Remove

a secret service detail that seemed to pounce immediately.

In fact, a lot of people were conflating this for firecrackers.

It didn't go down until they saw the

former president get rushed by his security detail.

We can't speak to his condition right now.

All we can say is he jumped back up, raised his fist in the air,

the crowd cheered but he did and he appeared to have some

bit of blood on his head at the time,

raised his fist in the air. We are all praying that he is ok.

We understand the secret service has whisked him away

in the motorcade. The FBI we're told is aware.

But this right now just as it's happening is a secret service investigation, Scott,

this comes as all eyes were really on this rally because we are

just days before the Republican National Convention.

And at any moment, the president,

the former president was expected to announce his VP pick.

So this was a significant rally and you know, at a time where

there's been a lot of scrutiny, a lot of focus on who that could have been.

We are getting in

some comment here, some commentary from JD Vance, the

senator from Ohio who was one of the contenders,

one of the contenders for president, former President Trump's VP pick.

He has written on X, everyone join me in praying for

President Trump and everyone at that rally. I hope everyone is ok.

It is a sentiment that we all echo Scott. Can you tell us what is happening now?

We're seeing some pictures uh likely from earlier of a motorcade

being taken out and uh security personnel and camouflage heading in

with long guns surely trying to secure the area.

I'm seeing another ambulance move in right now. Adriana. Pardon me?

As I look away, but I see another Adrian another ambulance behind one of the rafters

near where former President Trump was speaking, this crowd

is 90% gone from the seating area.

They've moved back behind us and some of them

in the direction of their cars or towards all the

uh the walking areas that got them the very long

walk from the parking lots to the rally site.

But

we see no shortage

of medical units.

I'm looking at 123 fire truck or medical units nearby a police detail,

keeping the crowd away from that area

to be clear. This is a heavily secured event.

This is not just a hanging out at the county fairgrounds. You had to get

w

you had to go through metal detectors you had to go through a secret service

protective detail to get into this site.

And people were arriving here as early as 10 or 11 this morning,

people were entering this area as early as one o'clock this afternoon.

They've been screamed, which begs any number of questions.

I can also tell you that it's worth noting the crowd,

some of them are being particularly hostile

there

yelling in the direction of us, yelling in the direction of authorities.

Um But they are emptying out rallies over.

It's incredible, Scott,

how quickly that crowd emptied out when we were talking just moments ago,

it was packed and now when we just saw you recently, you know,

you can see that that area has been cleared.

I can hear the yelling behind you, Scott. Uh No doubt, this is

a difficult, frightening moment for everyone who was there.

Everyone across the country who was watching

for there to be shots to have been fired toward the president.

And at this point, it's too early to know exactly what happened.

We saw him reach up and touch his head.

We don't know if he was hit. We don't know if he was grazed.

We don't know if someone else was hit.

You just told us that you saw an ambulance at the scene,

but this is a moment that is going to change the trajectory of this campaign

already. So much

focus had really been on this campaign on the side. Of President Biden.

Now, we are talking about the unthinkable potentially

former President Trump

on stage as shots ring out here in Butler County, Pennsylvania

Scott. Can you tell us a bit of what you're seeing now?

What are people yelling behind you?

He was raising his request.

They're yelling at us. Some of the members of the crowd are

gesturing towards us and screaming vulgarities at the media.

We're all in a row here on the rafters above the stage, above the seated area.

But I could see police or law enforcement of some sort, secret service

state police or county police moving the crowd out.

They're getting everybody out of here

which raises a few possibilities, doesn't it?

Adriana,

that they have to collect some type of

evidence or investigate some type of incident,

some type of crime.

If these were, in fact, gunshots,

are they concerned about everybody's safety as

people are now moving in aimless directions, bumping into each other,

bumping into tossed equipment.

There's a lot of debris around here too. People just hit the ground.

Chairs were toppled.

We

jump beneath

our

uh

our elevated stage, cameras and

stands and tables fell on top of us. It was a chaotic moment.

I don't think that's overstating it.

Once everybody recognized two or three seconds in these might be gunshots.

It was a sequence

of fast

of

exploding as if somebody had lit off 10 or 12 firecrackers in a row.

And it's easy to conflate firecrackers and some types of gun rounds.

But once everybody recognized something was afoot here.

When the secret service moved in to former President Trump,

everybody recognized the severity of the situation.

And there are people moving in different directions,

running into each other or just face planting into the grass or into the ground.

And

you can see still from my vantage point on the other side of this camera,

people in tears, people hugging each other,

people comforting each other

as the scene in Butler County,

Pennsylvania where there was to be a marathon rally

of former President Trump that only got five minutes in

before this incident occurred.

Scott, what you're describing is

horrific. This is, this is the worst possible scenario at an event like this.

Um Our politicians are supposed to be able to address

the public in a safe environment and that is why there is so so much security,

the security that you've described people being waned down,

having their bags checked just to get into that area.

And you know, we understand why tensions are so high,

why people are so emotional there?

This is

really just,

it's a tragic moment. Um

And

when you were there, when it happened, Scott,

did you know you mentioned it sounded like firecrackers.

How long did it take for people in the crowd to realize what was happening?

I

wanna

toss it

over

to

uh

took about four or five seconds for a lot of us to recognize that first of all,

firecrackers shouldn't be lit or ignited at an event like this.

So there was something suspicious about it,

even though it sounded like firecrackers,

there was a pretty quick realization,

this could be something much more dangerous

and let me be unequivocal about something.

This is a security failure of epic historic proportions

that there was

some type of explosive noise.

The former president had to be tackled and taken off stage by

a secret service with blood appearing to come from his head.

That a crowd of thousands at a presidential rally

had to hit the ground.

Some of them colliding with each other equipment falling

on their heads and our heads at one point

no matter what, this ends up being.

This is a security failure at an event that is secured by the

US Secret Service and any number of other law enforcement agencies where everybody

in the space

had to be screened

and wanted by metal detectors

and officers.