In Butler, Pennsylvania on April 6, 2024, gunfire disrupted Trump’s rally, leading to an assassination attempt before he departed for Newark, New Jersey, detailed in a visual timeline.
The FBI claims that the shooting that wounded former President Donald Trump during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday night was an assassination attempt. Two rallygoers suffered critical injuries, and one person lost their life.
Before the formal opening of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where the Republican Party is expected to officially nominate Trump as its presidential nominee, the event served as Trump’s final public appearance.
CNN pieced together what happened from the beginning of the event to the tumultuous moments when gunshots broke out to, finally, when Trump landed in Newark, New Jersey, early on Sunday morning, using videos, maps, and images that are reported here.
Roughly thirty miles north of Pittsburgh, in Butler, Pennsylvania, is where Trump will be holding his event.
The annual Butler Farm Show is held in the Butler Farm Show Grounds, which are located at 625 Evans City Road, approximately five miles from Butler’s downtown.
6:05:12 p.m. ET
Before chaos breaks out, Trump begins addressing his followers and speaks for around six minutes.
While Trump is still speaking, there comes a shout from the audience that says, “He’s got a gun.” Someone in the audience is heard saying, “On the roof,” repeatedly in the footage. He’s got a gun,” three shots ring out. There’s a pause followed by five additional gunfire fired quickly after that. “Stay under here,” an attendee says in the video.
6:11:33 p.m.
As gunfire echoes, Trump stops speaking.
6:11:34 p.m.
Trump touches his face on the right side.
6:11:35 p.m.
As US Secret Service personnel race to the platform to encircle him, Trump ducks behind cover. One says, “Get down, get down, get down.”
Even though the gunman is outside the event site, there are just around 400–500 feet separating him from where Trump is speaking.
Trump stays low to the ground and is encircled by agents, who are heard debating which vehicle to employ to remove the former president from the scene over the rally microphone. “Shooter’s down,” several agents declare a few seconds later. Now law enforcement with weapons and tactical gear is on stage. Another shot is heard, followed by the sound of a woman’s screaming.
The audio recording of Trump and Secret Service agents at the podium can be found here.
6:11:41 p.m.
Female agent: “What’re we doing? What’re we doing? …Where are we going…”
Man indistinctly yelling.
6:11:50 p.m.
Gunshot, then woman screams.
6:11:58 p.m.
Male agent 2: “Go around to the spare. Go around to the spare.”
(“Spare” refers to a spare limousine.)
6:12:00 p.m.
Male agent 3 appears to say something like: “Move to the spare, hold, hold, when you’re ready, on you.”
6:12:01 p.m.
Male agent 2: “Ready.”
6:12:02 p.m.
Male agent 3: “Move!”
6:12:03 p.m.
Male agent 2: “Up!”
6:12:03 p.m.
Male agent 3: “Move!”
6:12:04 p.m.
Male agent 4: “Go, go, go.”
6:12:06 p.m.
Male agent 2: “Hawkeye’s here.”
(“Hawkeye” is the code name for the counter assault team.)
6:12:06 p.m.
Female agent 1: “Hawkeye’s here, moving to the spare.”
6:12:09 p.m.
Male agent 4: “Spare get ready, spare get ready.”
6:12:10 p.m.
Male agent 2: “You ready?”
6:12:16-21 p.m.
Agents: “Shooter’s down. Shooter’s down. Are we good to move?”
6:12:21 p.m.
Male agent: “Shooter’s down. We’re good to move.”
6:12:22 p.m.
Female agent: “Are we clear?”
6:12:23 p.m.
Agents: “We’re clear. We’re clear. We’re clear.”
6:12:23 p.m.
Male agent: “Let’s move. Let’s move.”
6:12:25 p.m.
Trump instructs the agents to wait as they get ready to move him offstage. Trump raises his hand in the air, drawing a big shout from the rally attendees, and mouths the word “fight” three times as he pumps his fist, with blood streaming from his ear across a section of his face.
Here is an additional transcript of the same audio recording featuring Trump and Secret Service personnel when the agents begin to stand and raise Trump.
6:12:33 p.m.
Trump: “Let me get my shoes. Let me get my shoes.”
6:12:35 p.m.
Male agent 2: “I got you sir. I got you sir.”
6:12:36 p.m.
Trump: “Let me get my shoes on.”
6:12:37 p.m.
Another male agent: “Hold on, your head is bloody.”
6:12:39 p.m.
Male agent 2: “Sir, we’ve got to move to the car, sir.”
6:12:42 p.m.
Trump: “Let me get my shoes.”
6:12:43 p.m.
Female agent: “OK, [inaudible].”
6:12:47 p.m.
Trump: “Wait, wait, wait.” He then fist pumps to crowd. He mouths “fight” three times — a move met with cheers by the crowd.
6:12:54 p.m.
Agent: “We got to move. We got to move.”
6:51 p.m.
Trump’s spokesperson says the former president “is fine” and being evaluated at a “medical facility,” in a statement released approximately 40 minutes after the shooting.
8:42 p.m.
Trump claims in a statement released by Truth Social that he “knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin”—roughly two and a half hours after he was removed from the rally stage.
8:53 p.m.
Trump’s limousine leaves Butler Memorial Hospital, where he received post-shooting medical evaluations.
Late on Saturday night, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said that Trump had left the Butler, Pennsylvania, area after the incident at the rally. Early Sunday morning, Trump takes a plane back to Newark, New Jersey.
Margo Martin, the deputy director of communications for the Trump campaign, shares a video of Trump getting off a plane at Newark and writes on X: robust and tenacious. He will never give up defending America.
Explore exclusive GGI coverage of Donald Trump’s assassination attempt.
