At first, Clint Burgess thought the pop-pop-pop he’d heard were fireworks.
“When it first happened, in my mind, it did not sound like a gun,” Burgess, a former Tarrant County constable, said. “And so, I was like, who’s playing? Who the heck would be playing this game?”
A quick scan of the crowd showed nothing, but when Burgess turned back to the stage where former President Donald Trump had stood, it became clear what he’d heard weren’t fireworks after all. Burgess was on the field, mere feet away from the stage, when the shooting happened.
“The Secret Service was already on top of him,” he said. “And about the time I turned around to look at him, behind me, I hear, ‘We need a medic. We need a medic.’ Then at that point, we realized real quick that shots were fired.”
Burgess was one of hundreds gathered to celebrate Trump’s presidential run July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. He’d been to several Trump rallies before, he said, and was excited to join Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller at the Butler rally. The crowd, too, was buzzing with anticipation. That excitement, however, was short-lived.
Mere minutes into Trump’s speech, multiple shots rang out, including one Trump said clipped his ear. The shooter, identified as Pennsylvania resident Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by law enforcement. Crooks’ attack killed one spectator and critically injured two others.
“When people realized that shots were fired, they kind of pushed in towards us, because there was nowhere to go to the other side,” Burgess said. “And so, everybody started kind of coming towards us to the front rail, almost like a mosh pit at a concert. And we couldn’t get out or do anything. We’re just kind of pinned down right there.”
Speaking on the phone from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Burgess said he’s both frustrated that a coward would shoot innocent people and that the rally site wasn’t appropriately secured. He’s curious to see if there will ever be another outdoor rally like the one in Butler.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of lessons learned on this, and I hated that it happened, but there will definitely be a lot of lessons learned as a result of this,” he said.
What’s important, Burgess said, is to remain strong and move forward from the assassination attempt. While it was a traumatic situation, he said, he would have attended the rally even if he knew what he knows now.
“We have to stay with our convictions and our values and not back down from this situation. … We have to continue on,” Burgess said. “We have to continue to live our lives.”
Burgess called for prayers not only for the rally attendees but also the law enforcement officers on scene.
“This is emotional for them. They’re going to feel like they didn’t do what they needed to do,” he said. “They go through the same trauma. There’s gonna be a lot of regret for them, ‘I wish I woulda, shoulda, coulda.’ And so, we need to make sure we also support them and understand it’s a difficult situation for them, because nobody ever wants to fail.”
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.