BUTLER, Pa. — Two local women are feeling shock and alarm after they were present at the Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.
A mother and daughter were sitting eight rows back from the podium where Trump was speaking. Lynn Piwowarczyk, the mother from Chesterfield, recounts being unable to duck down when the gunfire rang out as her daughter, Dee Piwowarczyk-Gilmore from O'Fallon Missouri, witnessed the aftermath.
Dee Piwowarczyk-Gilmore said the former president hadn't been speaking for long.
"I don't even think he was speaking for less than 10 minutes when all this happened and when it first happened, it was a really light sound," she said.
While many questioned the noise at first, Lynn Piwowarczyk said, it didn't take them long to realize someone tried to shoot Trump.
"We could see there was blood, and there was blood on one of the Secret Service and so we knew he had gotten hit," she said.
Lynn said she tried to get down.
"I couldn't because there were people laying where our feet go and we were crowded in there," Lynne Piwowarczyk said. "I had the gentleman next to me laying on the ground, I had the lady next to me laying on the ground I said there was nowhere for me to lay you know?"
Dee said the mood shifted suddenly.
"It happened and it was so chaotic," Dee Piwowarczyk-Gilmore said. "Well, then all of it stopped. All of the sound was silent. Everyone popped up to see what the heck was going on. You could see them rushing Trump off the stage and then the Secret Service started yelling at us, 'Get down get down get down.'"
Lynn said they are still trying to wrap their heads around what they experienced.
"I've come to tears a couple times, but it's so overwhelming. I don't think we've absorbed all of what has happened," she said.
Both women are heading back to St. Louis Monday.