Jul 17, 2024 By Zach Petroff 5 min read

Richard Rosner, 51, woke up at his parents’ home in Lemont Furnace on Sunday morning with the heavy feeling that often comes after a traumatic experience.

He, his mother and his father cried and prayed together, processing what they’d been through the day before at the Butler County campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“Sunday was, I’m going to tell you, one of the hardest days,” Rosner, 51, said Tuesday.

The family was there when minutes into Trump’s speech, shots rang out, attendees of the rally dropped to the ground, and Secret Service members whisked the former president into a waiting SUV, blood running from his ear.

Trump and at least two others were injured in the attempted assassination, and Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief from Butler County, was killed when he used his body to shield his family from harm.

Authorities identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, as the man who used an AR-style rifle to shoot at Trump, grazing his ear. Seconds later, Crooks was shot and killed by law enforcement.

For the Rosner family, the rally was supposed to be part of a fun-filled celebration marking the 78th birthday of Rosner’s father, Richard Sr.

“(I)t could have been a fatal birthday, and that would have been on me,” Rosner Jr. said.

A ‘common’ candidate

Rosner Jr. said that he and his family have been supporters of Trump since 2016 when they felt the country would be best run by an outsider businessman who could enact change.

“We were all Democrats before,” he said. “My dad worked in the Anchor Hocking Factory in Connellsville, and he believed in unions and Democratic platforms, but we switched when (Trump) decided to run.”

He and his parents were excited for a candidate that could relate to the “common person,” and understand the needs of the many blue collar workers in Fayette County.

“That’s what Trump ran on,” he said. “Every day we go to work, and we just want to pay decent taxes and have a good American living, which is what the foundation of our country is built on, and I think Trump hit that sweet spot with everybody.”

The family enjoyed Trump’s platform so much that they went to his rally in Moon Township before he was elected. Rosner Jr. said it was exciting to think of a businessman running the country.

“The vibe was like a fresh breath of air to the United States,” he recalled of the 2016 rally.

The Butler County rally had the same feeling, he said. He likened it to Woodstock, with fellow Trump supporters talking with one another, listening to music as they waited for Trump to take the stage.

“There was not fighting,” he said. “I bet there were probably about 12 people that had heat exhaustion, and when they went down everybody came to them with bottled water. Everybody loved everybody, it was the most amazing time.”

Once Trump took the stage around 6 p.m. Saturday, it would just be a few moments until multiple shots rang throughout the crowd.

Fear and relief

Rosner Jr. said he saw the first shot hit one of the hydraulics on the crane that was being used to hold up the flag. Yellow smoke came out of it.

“(W)e thought it might have been some kind of pyro thing because (the bullet) hit the speakers too.”

From there, Rosner said terror and panic spread through the crowd.

Just about 75 yards away from the right-facing side of the stage, opposite of the shooter’s position, the Rosner family did what the rest of the crowd did: dropped to the ground.

Unable to tell if there were multiple shooters or if the gunman was going to turn his weapon to the crowd, Rosner Jr. said there was an almost collective state of shock among the people.

Moments later, people in the crowd said that Trump had been hit but were unable to assess the severity of the injury until the former president stood up holding his fist in the air.

As Secret Service members led Trump away, his fist remained up, energizing his supporters.

And, as people made their way to the safety points, the audience started reacting in an “unbelievable way,” Rosner Jr. said.

“The most amazing chant ever, and I can cry about this now, everybody was chanting, ‘USA,'” he said. “They were shouting this as they were running (from the area). I can’t describe it – we were all in terror when this happened, and all we could think about was our country – the USA.”

Rosner Jr., who now lives in Morgantown, W.Va., is working through the mental and emotional toll of what happened, and is thankful neither he nor his parents were physically injured.

“It’s going to take a long time for all of us to heal,” he said. “And me being a tough person (who) is joking and laughing all the time, I’m just getting back to that now.”