Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - "We're OK. We're still trying to process everything that happened. We're thankful we got out alright, and thankful the President is OK, but very sorry and heartfelt condolences go out to the family that lost their father and husband and brother," said Brooks Anderson, a local man who traveled to Butler, Pa. with his wife and daughter to attend a rally for former President Donald Trump on Saturday.
Anderson told WBEN it was hot and irritating, because the rally started late, and it was very crowded.
"We were packed in there like sardines, and when the President finally came on, all of that lifted. He has a stage presence about him that I've never seen," Anderson said on WBEN.
About 10 minutes into the rally, he said shots rang out, and everybody in the area there that were standing dropped to the ground. People didn't know what was going on.
"I'm a shooter, and it was obvious to me that it was gunfire. I knew it was an attack on the President," Anderson said.
Anderson and his family were just to the right of all of the iconic photos that have been circulated from the rally. He estimated he was about 75 feet away from former President Trump.
"We got down on the ground, I covered my daughter and wife with my body. It was so packed that people were lying on top of each other," he said. "Until the President was up and out of there, people were on the ground for a while."
Chaos quickly followed with cell phones not working. Anderson said they didn't know if the President had been shot, or what happened to the shooter.
"Other than watching the President get up, and raise his fists in the air, which was an amazing sight, our mission at that point was to get to safety. We didn't know what had happened until we were at our car 15 minutes later," he noted.
For the three-hour drive back to Buffalo, Anderson said they just listened to the news the whole time, and tried to process what they had witnessed.
"We had no idea, until we saw videos, of just how close President Trump was to being killed. That is absolutely frightening," Anderson said.