Minutes before former president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump took the stage at the Butler Farm Show Grounds last Saturday, Morgantown resident Richard Rosner knew something wasn’t right.
“I was having a very eerie feeling that none of this was normal. My dad was saying the same thing,” Rosner said. “In fact, people all around us were pointing, like ‘What is going on here?’”
Rosner, his parents, his brother and sister in-law were in the field, awaiting Trump’s appearance on stage.
One of the United States Secret Service counter sniper teams had drawn the crowd’s focus.
“It was very obvious something had these guys’ attention. This was happening probably like 5:45 to 6,” Rosner said. “The one team was perfectly calm, looking through binoculars, but these guys had their guns down. One kept popping up, then he’d get back down. The other guy was down on his gun like he was ready to shoot.”
Then, to the surprise of many, the music swelled.
“God Bless the U.S.A.” and Trump took the stage.
“For the first few minutes he’s speaking the activity of the snipers still has everybody’s attention. It seemed like everybody was more focused on these snipers than the president speaking,” Rosner told The Dominion Post Wednesday.
The rest is history in every sense of the word.
We now know that as Rosner and others in his general area were watching the activity of the snipers, spectators elsewhere were watching a would-be assassin clamber onto a roof some 400 feet from the rally stage.
At 6:11 p.m., his shots rang out.
“We all hit the ground. My dad and some others just stood, almost like they were in shock, or frozen. Then you hear the sniper firing back,” Rosner said.
“I’d brought my dad there for his 78th birthday and for a second, while I was laying on the ground, I thought this birthday could end in death. My mom was yelling ‘Get down,’ but he didn’t get down. He was frozen. And all I could think was a bullet could come from anywhere.”
Rosner said he’ll likely never forget the sights, sounds and emotions of 15,000 people going from the high of a concert-like atmosphere to absolute terror.
Likewise, he’ll also never forget seeing Trump with his fist raised and the shared sense of relief as the magnitude of the situation began to take hold.
“Those seconds on the ground were like hours. You’re helpless and you can’t move. You’re on the ground. You can hear the shots and you realize that you’ve lost all control over your life,” he said. “Those shots, to this day, still ring in my ears.”
