i'm tom llamas on the ground in butler, pennsylvania where a gunman opened fire on former president donald trump attic campaign rally just behind me with thousands in attendance. last night, the stage of the rally now a massive an active crime scene. and the site of the first assassination attempt against an american president in more than 40 years. the horrifying images former president trump clutching and ducking for cover behind his podium. the secret service forming a human shield around him and rushing him off the stage. trump raising his fist in defiance telling his supporters to fight because the blood streamed down his face. >> the gunman taken down by the secret service. the shooting leaving one rally go are dead and another two

badly wounded and still hospitalized. president biden before the cameras last night calling the shooting sick as politicians on both sides of the aisle condemned the violence and support the former president. this morning, what we are learning about the shooter, tom. >> reporter: the latest on the investigation which is now underway. and the political fallout hours before the start of the republican national convention and election resting on a razors edge in a nation left reeling. i want to set the scene behind me. we are outside the trump rally where it happened. former president trump speaking under the american flag. just to the right of me, this barn that you see with the door open is where law enforcement snipers were that is where they engaged the alleged assassin and ultimately, the assassin was killed. he was a tenth of a mile from where we are. we will show you video of that. on the roof, we saw investigators, about a half dozen of them, up there looking for evidence, collecting

evidence. it seemed like they were moving pieces of machinery as well and eventually they came down. they have been working on the crime scene around the clock as you can imagine trying to answer two questions. one, why this man wanted to kill former president trump, what was inside of him, and they also want to know how he was able to get so close. and while the identity of the shooter is known this morning, there are so many questions surrounding exactly how this happened. >> overnight, former president trump walking off his plane hours after surviving this assassination attempt. >> take a look at what happened. >> shots ringing out as president trump ducks down. secret service agents rushed to his side forming a protective shield. other officers in tactical gear armed with long guns post up at the front of the stage.

>> trump security detail lifting him up from the ground as he raises his fist. his ear and face bloodied, gesturing to the crowd. >> the secret service moving him into a waiting suv. another angle showing secret service agents reacting to the shots. the former president posting on his truth social account that he was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right year. i knew immediately that something was wrong in that i heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin." this stunning photo from the new york times capture what appears to be a bullet on the right-hand side of the image whizzing by the former president's here. >> if he had not moved his head in the nick of time, it could have been a lot worse. >> mr. trump extending his condolences to the family of the person at the rally who was

killed and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. >> the man beside me suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was instantly killed. >> president biden who learned about the tragic events could condemn the shooting. >> there is no place in america for this kind of violence. it is six. it is one of the reasons we have to unite the country. we cannot allow this to happen. we cannot be like this or condone this. >> this video shows the body of the alleged assassin on the roof of a building. his spot, roughly 150 yards from where mr. trump was speaking. one witness telling bbc news that he saw the shooter. >> we noticed the guy crawling up the roof of the building beside us. we were like, there is a man on the roof with a rifle. and the police are like, what? like they didn't know what was going on. i'm thinking, why is trump

still speaking? why have they not pulled him off the stage? i'm pointing at the roof standing there like this. and then five shots ring out. >> early this morning, the fbi identified the alleged gunman as thomas matthew crooks, 20 years old, of bethel park, pennsylvania. but why he allegedly wanted to kill former president trump is still unclear. the fbi leading an investigation involving the secret service, atf and state and local law enforcement on the ground in butler, pennsylvania. the alleged gunman killing one spectator and gravely injuring them to others. >> this evening, we had what we are calling an assassination attempt against our former president, donald trump. >> we have two new pieces of reporting i want to share with our viewers. the first being that the two victims that were gravely injured in the shooting, we have gotten an update from the medical facility in pittsburgh where they are being treated.

they are still in critical condition. their situation is still very serious. the secret service coming out with a statement saying that there is a lot of misinformation out there. there was an online report that the trump campaign asked for additional security, additional secret service protection and they were denied. the secret service this morning saying that is absolutely false. they ramped up protection of former president trump. our reporting from nbc news matches that from about a month ago. with that, i want to bring a special guest to join coverage. we have the district attorney for butler county. richard, thank you for joining us. there are a lot of questions out there. when you see everything happening and everything that has happened over the last 12 hours, what goes to your head? >> honestly, it is shocking. shocking that this would have happened. the last attempt on the president was 1980 i think. for it to happen in your own community, you just don't believe it would happen here. with everything going down right now, it is very surreal.

>> you walk around the neighborhood and there are trump flags and trump placards and people have the lawn sides. this is trump county. western pennsylvania on the border of ohio. do you think because of that, secret service or local law enforcement did not take this as serious as they needed to? >> i don't think so. i think they did everything they could. you just can't predict somebody that has a desire to commit the act that was committed. they did everything they could. i don't know what happened. i don't know how the gentleman got on the building like that. i don't know -- i mean you can second-guess all day long. but i don't think there is anything they could have done differently. they were prepared. >> even the fbi said they are surprised about how close this gentleman got. i should say the alleged assassin. it was about 150 yards, 440 feet, just on the road from where we are. it is so close when you walk up

to it. how do you think that happened? the secret service was here. he was outside the perimeter. we know that long guns can fire 200 yards. >> i think that is the million- dollar question and i don't know the answer. i would have expected they would have had that secured. i know we had people in that building. how this occurred, the investigation will determine that. >> the alleged shooter that was killed, thomas matthew crooks, 20 years old, we know he was from a community not far from here. what other white can you shed about the alleged shooter to the viewers? >> i don't know a lot about him. he is not from butler county. he would be from south of pittsburgh. we didn't have any history with him. >> he wasn't somebody that had a criminal record from what we understand? >> correct. >> he was not on the radar. >> he was not. >> talk to me about gun laws and what people can expect that is normal behavior. if someone is walking armor with a rifle, is that normal? could people be hunting?

walk the viewers through it. >> this is a big hunting county. a lot of people hunt here and they own firearms. it is a pro-gun county, let's say. to see someone walking with a rifle, you would probably stop and say, what is this individual up to? that would be unusual to see but to see someone with guns here in butler county would not be surprising. >> one of the rally goers or a couple of them said they noticed him. they started alerting police. this looks strange. you see this guy? local police started running around. what is your understanding of the police officers that were notified and that moment by moment, what they did? >> i did hear that as well. the people were notifying them and people observed him on the building. i know they reacted, law enforcement did, as soon as they could. i don't think they will just take a shot at him.

they see him on a building. >> chaotic situation and unclear what to do. >> unusual for this area? if it was local law enforcement out there, that would be an unusual situation. something they don't see a lot. i'm not talking about an assassination but i guess an active and open shooter situation. >> we don't see it very often. we have a team in butler county. they work here. they were active. we also don't have a foreign president coming into our county on a regular basis. the whole situation was unusual for butler county. >> is there anything about the incident so far that you have come across and can share with viewers that surprised you? >> quite frankly, i'm surprised he was able to get up on that roof and be able to take a shot. i hope the investigation determines how that happened. but yes. that is the most surprising thing to me when we have a former president here where a guy was able to get 150 yards

away on a roof and be able to take a shot. >> with a large weapon. do you know with the business was come with that facility was, the roof he was on? >> yes. it is an industrial basically. they have been here for a long time. >> industrial warehouse? >> they do glass. >> manufacture glass? >> yes. >> was the business open at the time? do you know of people were coming or going to watch the rally? >> i would suspect no. i don't think they are open seven days a week. i do know we have law enforcement in the building which is even more surprising that he was able to get up there. >> law enforcement described this man as a lone wolf. do you know if leads are being pursued or if anyone helped him or what is happening? >> i think that is what the investigation is looking at. was he working alone or with someone else involved?

>> you know anything about the victims that were shot here? a lot of people that came here world ruler from the community. one person lost their life and two in critical condition at the allegheny medical center in pittsburgh. you know anything about what happened there? >> i don't have any information or names at this point. there was a female injured and a male was killed. i think the other individual injured was a male. i pray that they survive and it is unfortunate that we lost a life. >> thank you so much for joining the coverage tonight and we know it will be a busy couple of days and weeks for your team. >> our nbc news correspondent dasha burns was reporting from the rally yesterday just on the other side of the barnes you see behind me watching the president's speech. she talked about her experience numerous times. now is the first time i will have a chance to talk to her. first, good morning. i know you have told the story a couple of times now. you sort of set the scene of

what you saw. when you were watching it in realtime, did you understand or register what was happening? >> no. like so many people we talked to in the aftermath, initially, we thought it was fireworks. the former president's rally sometimes has pyrotechnics or smoke. that was my initial thinking. you never jump first to the conclusion that this was an active shooter or act of political violence. it was when those cops kept going and the former president stopped talking that it felt like, this is not something that was expected. this could potentially be dangerous. it went from a sort of initial confusion and chaos to a bit of adrenaline and fear settling in. bianca and i were coming off the press risers and walking down the stairs when the initial sounds were going and now keep echoing through my

mind and went off. we took cover behind some stage equipment. big boxes of stage equipment when we realized this could be something dangerous. even as i was taking cover, i was thinking, this is just a precaution. we are just doing this to be safe. we will realize it was fireworks or something, not ultimately what we realized was the reality, political violence here. >> can you explain to our viewers, if you can, just how close the alleged assassin was. it shocked me this morning when we came out to the scene and again, former president trump was speaking under the american flag. we drove, i would say 10 seconds in this direction, and there is a road that takes the right to that business that we talked about. the glass factory, where the alleged assassin got on the roof. it shocked me how close it was and how easy it was to get there. when you finally learned where

he was, did it surprise you? >> it did and it didn't. here is what i will tell you. i have been to dozens of trump rallies. the security measures in place are intense. everyone that goes inside of one of these events get screened thoroughly. you go through and whether you are a member of the public or press, they go through every one of your bags. they look through your wallet. even small bags. it is a thorough search. the only problem is that this was an outdoor event. he often does rallies at outdoor venues. but when we learned it was outside the perimeter, that is when i wasn't surprised. i was surprised when i was thinking, how could somebody possibly get through with all these levels of security? how could someone get through? and then thinking behind the former president, behind the audience, it was open space. this was a rural county. rolling hills. a lot of open spaces.

when i realized it was outside the perimeter, it did not shock me. what was surprising is that the area was unprotected. it was not searched or being guarded. that is something that was not taken into account. of course we will wait for the investigation to reveal to us why that happened. >> we are focusing so much on former president trump, as we should. i think it is fair to say that he came inches, if not centimeters to maybe death. somebody did lose their life here. somebody was killed at a political rally in the united states for simply attending. and then you have two others in critical condition. i know you spoke to some people and to an eyewitness that we saw in the report, who saw the person next to him die. i cannot imagine what that man went through. >> reporter: so many of the people i talked to her in shock understandably. they talked also about the

children that were at the rally. there are often kids at these events. people bring their whole families to these. the vibe of a trump rally is often like a concert or festival. it is not just going to see a politician but to see friends and family and people in the area. it is going to the tents with merchandise and swag and food trucks. it is kind of a celebratory atmosphere. people went in with that mood or idea in mind and many people that you talk to a trump rallies as you know have been to multiple rallies. this is the thing that they do when the former president is anywhere near their home towns. to go from that jovial atmosphere, excited to see someone you are planning to vote for and suddenly witness the historic and devastating event and some of the people i talked to as you mentioned, were right there. they saw the former president get hit in the ear. and one gentleman i spoke to saw a man get killed dying on impact. another family i spoke to saw a man get injured.

a mother told me she knew her son was scared because he grabbed her hand. he had not done that since he was a little child. these are memories that are seared into people's minds. so many people thinking about not just the former president but the families of the man killed and those in critical condition. no way to describe what it is like to so quickly have your entire world change. it is so interesting, tom. some people i talked toward shocked this happened and never thought it could happen. others said, we are living in a polarized time. every time i go to a political event, i think, would something happen here? >> before you go, we know the former president is in new jersey. that is the latest reporting we believe. walk us through what happens next. the republican national

convention kicks off tomorrow. obviously with added security. does anything else change for the republican national convention or with the president's schedule? >> the sources we have talked to say that in practice, it will move forward as planned with the exception of security. that will certainly change. but in spirit, that is what will be very different. there is no way that this will not be impacting just about every aspect of the messaging of the tone and tenor and mood of the convention. this is what everyone has been anticipating. we have been waiting for the crucial vice presidential choice for president. we are told that is not changing. emotions and security and everything heightened after this unbelievable and unreal event, tom. >> dasha burns for us,

phenomenal reporting. we appreciate all of it. i want to send it back to new york with my friend kate snow. >> let's bring in nbc law enforcement and intelligence officer tom winter who has been here talking to law enforcement sources. we just got new information about the kind of weapon the shooter used. three senior law enforcement officials telling nbc news that it was a semi automatic rifle. >> one of the things that has been put out here is that this is an ar-15 style rifle. i think a lot of times people use that as a catch all for what we are describing as a semi automatic rifle. it will chamber the next round automatically and it still needs, the trigger still needs to be pulled, in order to fire. and just pulling the trigger back and round after round comes out. you have to pull the trigger each individual time you want to fire. it is high-powered. it has the capability to cover that distance.

it appears to have a longer barrel perhaps then most ar- 15's, which would help with that. the bottom line, looking at these images, they are stunning to look at. this individual came exceptionally close to killing the former president of the united states and the republican nominee in just several day's time. as far as the person responsible for the shooting, they have been identified as thomas matthew crooks, born in september of 2030 -- 2023, from bethel park, pennsylvania. we find no criminal history or history of lawsuits. we have talked about other mass shootings or other serious events. not an attempted assassination but we look at lawsuits to see if somebody has a particular ax to grind against an individual or individuals. we can't see that as we are looking at the screen. registered according to pennsylvania records is a

registered republican but did donate $15 to a pro- democratic because. right now, it is very unclear, and the words of one senior law enforcement official, what the motive might be here. for a 20-year-old male in america, this individual has a very small social media footprint. that will make it more difficult. and i have to keep an open mind. that is what law enforcement is doing at this point, as to what the law says and what the motive might be. >> we have not heard from the family of this person. we have not heard from many friends. we don't have a lot of information yet. >> that is right. the family home is courted off by law enforcement. there was a robust law enforcement presence in that neighborhood. you can't even get close to it. what the family members might be saying and what they are talking about, we do not yet know. if they found any hard drives or journals at home, it is unclear at this hour as well. >> we have video this morning of people and it does show the

body of the possible shooter on the roof of the nearby building. the video verification team has that building about 300 yards from where mr. trump was speaking. do police have any further idea -- and we just talked about it with the district attorney, how on earth a person was able to get to that position right before this rally? >> 100%. that is being looked at. and something people are focusing on. when you look at this incident and how close it was and of course, this is a google earth image that was taken in a moment in time. we don't see the infrastructure for the trump rally or the steals or what the secret service has set up. they do set up a perimeter. you have to go through magnetometers or be wanted to make sure you don't bring a gun into any particular rally. this goes for trump or biden or anybody else, receiving this level of protection. to your point, this individual to the right of where trump was speaking, you are looking at law enforcement that has been on the roof of the building

this morning. that will be an enormous question as to how this person was not scene. also, and i know you have covered a number of these high profile political events as well, normally, you would see some sort of uniformed police presence. the secret service cannot be everywhere. they have a limited amount of agents. they have to focus on the protect do you, in this case, donald trump. but they do engage with the pennsylvania state police who was there yesterday and local law enforcement, to set up a more broad perimeter and then have a uniformed presence. it is surprising to me, based on initial accounts and based on initial video we have seen, that there did not appear to be some sort of a uniformed presence here who can be on the radio and say, we have a guy climbing up on a roof. the counter snipers spotted him at some point. that is why he is deceased. you are looking at how close. looking at the map, how close this was. >> overnight, it has gotten a lot of play.

there was an eyewitness that spoke out and said, i did see this man. i saw someone with a rifle. i tried to flag it, he said, local law enforcement that were nearby but we don't know what that looked like. is anyone in your world, your sources, anyone saying that perhaps there were not enough personnel on site yesterday? >> i don't think anyone wants to jump to those kind of conclusions until they know precisely what the plan was or what might have happened. i will say this. from the press conference last night involving the fbi and the pennsylvania state police and folks we have spoken with today, that is something being looked at. what was the plan? was at the right plan? clearly not. for the secret service, they have to be right all the time. the person who would want to commit an attempted assassination only has to be right once. so for them, they have to go back and look at this. obviously, we have been talking about the campaign for so long between trump and biden and we know what the discussion has

been for the last several weeks in this country about the current president and what might happen with him in this race. and we know that trump obviously has the rnc starting this week. these two will have to traverse the country. or whoever will be the democratic nominee is going to have to traverse the country, campaign, talk to people, be out there and engage with the public in a scenario where you have just had an attempted assassination of one of the candidates. the stakes couldn't be higher for the secret service. and in a time where law enforcement, their numbers and manpower, is down. there are challenges abroad. this is completely changing the game, no doubt about it. i think a lot of these outdoor rallies, which are frequently used by candidates across the country, will be given a hard examination here. >> getting a second look here. tom winter, thank you so much. i want to continue the conversation with christopher or leary, former director of hostage recovery for the united states government. senior vice president for

global operations. thank you for being with us on a difficult morning. can we start off with watching what happened yesterday from beginning to end. and then we can talk about it on the other side. >> if you want to really see something said, take a look at what happened -- >> [ sound of gunfire ]

shooter is down. clear. there is a lot to process there. i wonder, as you watch that, can you tell us what you see and what jumps out to you? >> there are a couple of things. number one, i am not shocked that the event happened. those of us that studied terrorism or political violence expected some level of violence at some point as we go into the small or post- elections.

conditions were ripe for this. what happened when you look at the video on the stage, with the secret service did, reacting, was spot on. everything they have done and have been complemented for that. you see the close protection team immediately collapsed on the president. there is likely a ballistic curtain in front of him. they are assessing him on the ground, on the extent of the injuries. only secret service agents have the medical training for trauma. you can see the swat team individuals. >> they are looking for additional threats while the team engages and puts down the assassin or the attempted assassin. they did everything right. the issue is about how he got within 150 yards. that is very concerning. that should never have happened. >> my assumption would be that that was left to be covered by

state and local law enforcement and there was a breakdown and someone was able to get in there. what secret service did to react was spot on. they are the premier organization in the world for protective security operations. they are limited and manpower. they have to rely on state and local law enforcement and other federal agencies to carry on these massive undertakings. as you are going into the conventional waukee, they have a large majority out there as well of personnel. >> . >> i don't know if you heard the conversation prior to you with tom winter about this idea that someone was able to scale and climb on to a roof with a loaded weapon, is just unfathomable. how does the investigation -- two fold, what are they doing to figure out who did this? and what are they doing to figure out what went wrong? >> the fbi has resources

there. there are 56 field offices and the fbi and pittsburgh being one of them. it does not have all the tools or personnel that it needs for such a monumental investigation. fbi headquarters in quantico have searched for resources. that includes the critical incident response group which will have the analysis unit. the profilers and the evidence response teams and the laboratory division for ballistics and for dna. you name it. for computer forensics. they have every tool at there. they are doing searches of the crime scene and of the shooter's house. they are trying to pick apart his life. there are agents coming up there that will interview everybody he knows they will build a pattern of life or how he has conducted himself the last few weeks. and they will want to find out,

is in direct association with anyone? was he directed by anybody? whether he was inspired by someone else. what is the ideology? does he have a mental illness and this mobilized him toward violence? or was their something else? was a deliberate act of political violence. part of a group or following a certain ideology like acceleration is him or something? >> we are months away from the election. there will be more rallies and more events. how does this change everything for how the secret service makes sure both president trump and president biden are protected? >> it won't change much actually. it is a wake-up call. often in failures like this, you double down on what you have been doing. they will try to look at the procedures. obviously, they will change things like a building that had

a live site 150 yards away should never have happened. the rifle, if it is confirmed, he is carrying that ar-15 style rifle. the range for that is to hit a man sized target at 500 yards for even a basically trained individual to carry out a shot from 150 yards. that is not difficult. the round itself is troubling about 3100 feet per second. of the time he shoots, people are not hearing that until the bullet has already passed president trump and the other victims unfortunately in the crowd. the secret service will look at everything they are doing. they will bring in additional resources from federal and state agencies and they will start looking at the protective intelligence more closely. they have an excellent protective intelligence division that tries to identify any high threat individual before they go to a location. so are there people looking to travel outside the area to

visit? other people of concern inside. they work closely with the fbi and the joint terrorism task force to try to identify those people for everywhere they go. >> christopher o'leary, great to have you with us this morning. thank you. >> stay with us. much more special coverage right here on nbc news now and msnbc right after this short break. ief? r-o-l-a-i-d-s rolaids' dual-active formula begins to neutralize acid on contact. r-o-l-a-i-d-s spells relief. (aaron) i own a lot of businesses... so my tech and my network need to keep up. thank you, verizon business. (kevin) now our businesses get fast and reliable internet from the same network that powers our phones. (aaron) so whatever's next... we're cooking with fire. (vo) switch to the partner businesses rely on. dangerous ladders. gutter muck. yuck. no wonder you hate cleaning your gutters. good thing there's leaffilter. our patented filter technology keeps leaves and debris

out of your gutters forever. guaranteed. call 833- leaffilter to get started. and get the permanent gutter solution that ends clogs for good. they took the time to answer all of our questions. they really put us at ease. end clogged gutters for good. call 833.leaf.filter, or visit leaffilter.com today. if you have been following this story about the alleged assassination a trumped on former president trump, you have probably watched a clip with so many videos. we have put all of those together to show you how this unfolded in realtime. >> 6:03 p.m. eastern, former president donald trump takes the stage at a campaign rally in butler,

pennsylvania. minutes later, at 6:11 p.m., as mr. trump discusses his record on immigration, the first shots ring out. mr. trump grabs his right ear before dropping to the ground as more rounds are fired. people in the crowd began to scream. multiple agents pile on top of the president to shield him from the gunfire. their tense dialogue picked up on nearby microphones. >> seconds later, armed officers rush on stage in front of the podium as word arrives that the shooter is down less than one minute after the first shot. >> shooter is down. clear. >> 6:12 p.m., agents surround the former president as he is lifted back to his feet and overheard asking if he can get his shoes. 6:13 p.m., mr. trump's bloody face visible through a wall of secret service agents as he lifts a fist in the air mouthing the word "fight" over

and over again. as he is helped down the stairs and rushed into a waiting suv surrounded by armed police. the fbi looking into the moments leading up to the shooting including reports that witnesses saw the shooter on a nearby roof outside the raleigh perimeter where the shots were fired. >> i am aware that law enforcement had responded to a number of reports of suspicious activity. the specific response to this would be part of the after action. but yes, law enforcement was responding to check on several suspicious occurrences. >> this cell phone video appears to capture those terrifying moments right before the president was shot. federal authorities are combing through the footage as they try to figure out this morning how this could have happened. >> reporter: we will speak to an eyewitness that was at the rally watching former president trump when all of this happened. we will speak to her in a moment.

first, we are joined by our nbc news senior law enforcement analyst, and the former chief of police in dekalb county, georgia. thank you for joining the special coverage. anyone who has watched this or has read what has happened has the same question. how did this guy get so close? watching all the videos and knowing law enforcement, what is your take? why do you think this man who wanted to kill former president trump was able to get within 150 yards of the former president? >> the motives still need to be understood and that will take time for the investigation. in terms of him being able to be within 168 yards of this being reported, i am certain that that is a great concern for the secret service and local agencies involved. we won't know that until they do a total look at its totality

and leading up to the event from the planning stage to the time the assault took place. being able to take a look at it in a report to determine what was left open. what chain was not locked. i think that will be determined over time. anything we try to assist prior to that will be speculative until we know more information. and i think it is important to know. >> i do want to ask you what stands out for you looking at this. somebody who spent decades in law enforcement. what stands out to you? >> what stands out to me is you had someone within 168 yards of the former president who was able to get off a round. i say that not being critical. i say that in the sense of

until we know more of their security profile and protocols and what actions they took and how much information we don't know still that may give some indication as to how the shooter was able to get that close. 168 yards out from the elevated position. the question will become, how can someone get on top the roof with a rifle. and we have reports coming in with witnesses that say, yes, we saw this person. we yelled to police. we are getting spotted information over short periods of time. and i think over time, we will have a better assessment from police in terms of what they saw and when and the action that took place. that does concern me as it should concern any law enforcement official, i'm quite sure. and there is no doubt in my mind that they are taking a good look at that throughout the day. >> always a pleasure to talk to you. we are joined lived by donna

hudson, an eyewitness at the rally yesterday. good morning. thank you for joining us. i know it was a trying time for you. if you can walk the viewers through where you were and what you saw and experienced please. >> good morning. we were in the stand to the right. and the stand to the right is where two people got shot. the man who died and the woman. they were in the eighth row. the stands were not very tall. about 10 rows up and we were in the third row watching the president. and i heard the three pops first. and you start thinking and you don't want to believe it. my son screamed. immediately people were getting down and crawling off the bleachers on to the ground in

front of us which is a limited space. we were piling on top of each other. we were laying down on the ground. i was able to look up and you could see where the shooter had shot the two people. they were laying there. one gentleman put a towel over the man's head. those people were calling from medics to get help into the area. when they came over, our group, we were taped off. we were the crime scene because that is basically where everything happened on that situation. we got evacuated from there. i didn't see any shooters. i heard the noises. i was able to see the president when i was on the ground, i was against the fence. they were lined with flags. i lifted the flag. i was able to see. i saw the president. i saw the secret service getting him up. i saw the blood on his ear and him going out. so word was spreading through the low-lying people. we all knew president trump was okay but that we had a man dead

in the bleachers and a woman injured. and that shook up everybody around us seeing that. >> donna, can you tell us about the woman and the extent of her injuries? did you see where she was hit? >> yes. she went on the golf cart right by us. hers was more in the hand area. it did not seem like she was shot on her body area. her hand or wrist. that is what was being covered at least. >> it seems like the two others the gravely injured are two men. >> no. in the bleachers, there was a man and the wife. >> there was another person critically injured, yes yes. >> yes.

of the medical officials in pittsburgh told us two men in critical condition. i know they are different from what you were talking about. you are depicting moment by moment what you remember hearing. the bullets from the weapon being described are in ar-15 and can shoot up to 1500 yards. may be further. we saw the image of the bullet whizzing by. when the person was struck, what else do you remember about it? >> i don't know if i felt anything but what i did feel was like it was over your head. because the sound. you immediately tuned in. like you turned and looked and i wanted to turn around. >> very close. too close for comfort. >> when you found out where

the assassin was, could you see that at the time? or did you see afterwards? how close was it? >> i did not find out until i got home. i did not find out where he was until i got home. we heard he was around the bleacher area. they made it sound like he was closer. i did not see any of that. >> you saw the president. you have eyes on the president and the way the secret service surrounded him. what stands out to you the most about that moment.? >> just sheer fear and fright. watching that and knowing somebody out there. and knowing, the bleachers were shot. are we going to get shot? are there more people that will be aiming at everybody.

>> i have covered a lot of trump rallies. this is usually the most loyal supporters that are in the stands behind him or the ones that got there the earliest. how did you or your other rally goers end up on the bleachers? >> they got there at 8:30 a.m. that is how we got in. we sat it out. in full sun. back in full sun until 6:00 p.m. we suffered out to hear president trump talk. this was our second rally. we saw him in youngtown when he was running his first term the first time. >> i wanted to ask you that question. nobody should ever get hurt or definitely ever get killed at a political rally in the united states. there is a cruel and sick irony that the most loyal supporters of former president trump, one

of them, has been killed. the other two injured. and they likely got here as early as you did and spent hours in the sun waiting an entire day to watch the president they will vote for, for president. and now two of them is in the hospital and one will never come home. >> exactly what we thought. and to look at their family, it was just beyond. >> i'm so sorry that you had to experience that. we do appreciate you shedding light about what happened. we are so sorry that you had to live through that. >> thank you. >> we will have much more from the scene here in butler, pennsylvania and reaction from across the country right after this break. after careful review of medical guidance and research on pain relief, my recommendation is simple: every home should have salonpas. powerful yet non-addictive. targeted and long-lasting.

i recommend salonpas. it's good medicine. ♪ hisamitsu ♪ (♪♪) when life spells heartburn... how do you spell relief? r-o-l-a-i-d-s rolaids' dual-active formula begins to neutralize acid on contact. r-o-l-a-i-d-s spells relief. ♪♪ looking good, guys! thanks! vacations are better with the credit gods are on your side. i'm coming up! rewards once available to the few are now accessible to the many. earn points for travel with credit one bank, and live large.

. we heard about the assassination attempt on former president donald trump. and they learned the president was going back to the white house. we will check in with our white house correspondent who is with us. first, we want to hear more about what president biden said last night. >> the bottom line is, the trump rally that should have been conducted peacefully without any problem, but the idea that there is political violence in america like this is unheard of. it is inappropriate. everybody must condemn it. >> what is on president biden's schedule for today? >> the president got back to washington a little after

midnight. he was supposed to be in delaware at his beach house until sometime monday. he is back in d.c. now. what we are told is we can expect him to have another update, a briefing from his national security team this morning. we have not been given an exact time. we expect it will happen this morning. beyond that, a senior white house official tells our team that the president's day is fluid so there could be additional phone calls or meetings the president may participate in. we have not been able to rule out the possibility that he may address the public like he did last night a couple of hours after he learned about the shooting in pennsylvania. of course we will be stationed here and watching to see if the president's schedule changes and if we get any sort of a statement from him after his update this morning. >> we know the president was able to speak with donald trump last night. what do we know about what they discussed? >> honestly not much. we know the president indicated during his remarks last night that he had tried to reach out

to the former president. we did learn they did speak by phone. we are only told they had spoken. we are hoping to get more details today about what may have been discussed in the phone call. i don't think it is any secret on a political level. these two men have not had a great relationship. we saw the debate a couple weeks ago where they did not shake hands on the debate stage. it is something we typically do see. this is an instance where i think the candidate label goes away, particularly for the sitting president, when someone under secret service protection and is a former president, is shot and a public venue, as was the case yesterday. the president has to step firmly into the role of president of the united states and figure out with his team, secret service come home and security, fbi and the department of justice, exactly what happened here. recognizing there are other people under secret service

protection and other former presidents. this is something they obviously don't want to see happen and something they need to get right in the future. >> thank you so much. >> organizers say the republican national convention for this week is going to proceed as planned starting tomorrow in milwaukee. our nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard is there. we had a different idea what will happen this week. we are waiting for an announcement of who trump will take as a vice president. now there has been an assassination attempt. and organizers said they will keep it similar to what was planned but what else changes? >> i saw the former rnc chair and the chair of the convention here in milwaukee. that was at the early hours. there is already a lockdown presence here on site of this

arena. and the convention will come 24 hours from night now. right now come the delegates, thousands of republican delegates are already here. meetings have been going on for the better part of last week. there was a reception planned last night that was canceled because of the events that unfolded. now the focus turns to the security apparatus for these upcoming four days. donald trump is set to take the stage thursday night. of course, we anticipate him making a vice presidential running mate selection. that individual is set to speak on wednesday night. but there are other key elected officials that will be speaking tomorrow night, monday night, here at this downtown milwaukee location. secret service is on-site. milwaukee police have been planning this for years. we have seen a perimeter of fencing go up. magnetometers are in place. we had to walk through those at

sunrise this morning. was on the late hours of last night, some of the areas around the arena beginning to go through an intense inspection by the secret service put together this lockdown situation in this perimeter to ensure the security of the venue with thousands of republicans on hand. >> thank you so much. stay with us. much more of the special coverage here on nbc news now and msnbc, after a short break. imagine checking your own heart with medical precision from anywhere. introducing kardiamobile 6l, the fda-cleared ekg that provides six-times more heart data than any smartwatch. and it detects three of the most common arrhythmias in just 30 seconds, including atrial fibrillation, bradycardia and tachycardia. check your heart with the most advanced personal ekg outside the hospital. get yours at kardia.com or amazon. (♪♪)

(♪♪) (♪♪) (♪♪) start your day with nature made. and try new zero sugar gummies. . we are back now with special coverage. six previous presidents have had assassination attempts either while they were in office or on the campaign trail. former president theodore roosevelt was shot while seeking reelection in 1912. and like trump, he was trying to get back into the oval

office. he was shot on the way to deliver a speech in milwaukee which is coincidentally where the republican national convention will start tomorrow. for more on the historic nature of this, let's bring in our nbc news presidential historian. it is good to see you. we are living right now through history. this is a history making moment no matter what happens next. can i first just get your perspective as a historian on what we witnessed last night and how this might shape the nation? >> we witnessed a horrible event. we have had moments of violence in american history. and at our best, and there is so much in our dna as americans. we use an event like this to come together. after john kennedy's assassination in 1963, lyndon johnson went to congress and said, let us use this moment to put an end to the preaching of hate and evil and violence and remember that we are one people. if that happens now, week can use the event to make our

country better. >> we are showing on the screen the previous presidential assassination attempts. the most recent being ronald reagan. it has been a long time since the nation has dealt with something like this. >> it has. and it doesn't mean it is any less distressing when something like this happens. and ronald reagan's case, as you know, that was 90 days after ronald reagan took office. it nearly killed him. people were so impressed with his grace and bravery and one thing that happened that year was the two parties in congress worked together for a lot of legislation and at least for a brief time, it was that air of good feeling. it would be wonderful if we could have that again. how do you think this moment could be remembered and discussed? >> we will remember this moment looking back on this. our children will and our descendents and others, in terms of how it changed history. and violent events cause there

things like civil war. we use these moments, as horrible as they are, to collect ourselves for a moment and say, where have we strayed from the ambitions of our founders to bring the country together and have a united nation and united people. that would be a reassertion of the best lessons in american history. >> we are hearing from both sides of the aisle, calls for no more, calls to take the temperature down. house speaker mike johnson was on earlier saying, on all sides, we have to stop inflaming things. can you see that happening? >> i can if we follow history. at our worst, we have instances of violence like this. you mentioned the four times that american presidents were assassinated. gerald ford was nearly killed twice and of course ronald reagan. this has happened in history.

what really remains for all of us, the test for all of us is how we react to this. if this makes everyone more angry and causes the division in the country to become greater, that follows the worst lessons in american history. if we follow the best ones, we could make this a moment that includes our country. >> it is always nice to have your perspective on a day like this. there has not been a day like this in a long time. they with us. special coverage on nbc news now and msnbc continues right now. this is an nbc new special report. >> this morning, special coverage of the assassination attempt on former president trump, i'm tom llamas in butler, pennsylvania where a gunman shop former president trump at a campaign rally last night ju