CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — Chaos unfolded in Butler County on Saturday as former President Donald Trump came under gunfire at his rally.
Jim Shuster, the founder and president of Newville Construction Services and Eleven Oaks Farm in Cumberland County, attended the rally with friends and was seated in the front row when the former president was hit in the ear by a bullet.
"It whizzed past my face, right here," Shuster said. "12 to 18 inches past me."
Shuster says he was standing on an elevated embankment during the rally, and felt the bullet that hit the current Republican nominee for president.
"He hunched and brought his hand to his ear," Shuster recalled. "He wasn't in a panic or anything. He kind of spun and went to the deck. While I'm watching all that, two more bullets [rang out], and I could see the vapor trails of them. I could hear them [fly] past me."
Shuster says he and his friends went down to the ground after hearing the shots.
"I wasn't afraid for me," Shuster said. "I was afraid for those around me, the president, as well as the other bystanders."
When he got up, Shuster said he saw the president raise his fist to the crowd before being ushered off the stage. He then saw the three victims of the shooting being attended to in the bleachers to the sides of the former president.
"[The victim] was laying down, and it was almost immediately they started CPR," Shuster said.
Shuster said that despite the chaos, the crowd behaved in an orderly fashion while evacuating.
"There was some screaming," Shuster said. "There was a lot of vulgarities going on. But as a whole, the people were orderly. I was very proud of that."
What was not in order was the security of the event, which saw 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks take a clear shot at Trump from about 150 yards away before being killed by law enforcement. Shuster says the building Crooks was on was in clear view of the stage despite not being on the property and should have been secured.
"I can't believe that there wasn't somebody stationed on that roof," Shuster said. "From a law enforcement standpoint, at least clear the roof, and they had drones and stuff. I can't believe that they didn't have surveillance there."
As President Biden and former first lady Melania Trump both issue calls for unity following the shooting, Shuster says it’s time for everyone to take a step back and end the ongoing vitriol in American politics.
"People need to learn respect for each other, for each other's feelings," Shuster said. "If your hate of one man is greater than your love of this great country of ours, you are the problem."