A local woman was in the audience in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday when an assassin’s bullets struck former President Donald Trump and claimed the life of another audience member.
Kelley Gridley is a banker with Tompkins Community Bank in Auburn. She told Ed Helinski, special correspondent with Finger Lakes Daily News, that she and a friend were standing approximately 60 feet from the stage where President Trump was speaking and approximately 50 feet from the area of bleachers where the spectator was fatally shot. Gridley said she didn’t know the former President had been shot in the ear until her daughter sent her a message.
Cell coverage had been spotty in Butler all day because of the large amount of people on hand but Gridley was able to get a message out to her daughter that there were gunshots at the event and that she was okay. She urged her daughter to turn on the news.
Gridley confirmed what has been reported since Saturday’s shooting and that everyone went through metal detectors before the rally and she felt safe, particularly after seeing Secret Service snipers positioned in the area. After mentioning the snipers, Gridley said, “Who would’ve thought?”
Like many Americans, Gridley said she is in shock from what transpired on Saturday. What started as a four-and-a-half-hour trip to see the Republican nominee for President of the United States turned into a nightmare.
“I shook pretty much all the way home. Very little sleep. Actually had nightmares hearing the pop, pop, pop….”
Gridley told Helinski, “One other thing I should mention is the worst part and what I’ll struggle with, is when we were told to get down. As I was on the ground, we didn’t know who was shooting, how many people were shooting, who they were shooting at, or when it would end.”
Gridley said they arrived back in Auburn at around 2 Sunday morning. She said it took hours to get out of the lot where they parked their car in Butler.
When asked how she was doing, Gridley responded “I know it will be a long time, if ever, that I will be able to be in a crowd.”
The FBI identified the suspected gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, whom officials said was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and fired up to eight shots before a Secret Service sharpshooter shot and killed him.
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