Why These Trump Supporters Are Going Back to the Butler Shooting Site

Snipers stand on a roof at Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024. Glen Van Tryfle/TMX via Reuters

Excitement turned into horror after gunfire erupted at former President Donald Trump’s July 13 rally, followed by sorrow for those who were shot, relief that Trump survived, and endless questions over security failures.

Now, nearly three months after that failed assassination attempt, Trump and thousands of rallygoers will reconvene Oct. 5 at the Butler Farm Show grounds in Butler Township, Pennsylvania. That’s where bystander Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed as he shielded his family, and three others, including Trump, were wounded before a Secret Service sniper killed the suspected gunman.

Several Butler attendees say they don’t merely want to go back for Trump’s return visit. They said they need to, despite continuing threats against the Republican presidential nominee’s life.

They say they’re expecting an emotional reunion with those who are remembering Comperatore. They also are seeking to heal from their shared traumatic experiences and to again display their unwavering support for Trump in his bid to regain the White House. The Nov. 5 election is exactly a month after the former president’s scheduled return to Butler.

Brad Jones, 55, who lives near Butler, said the fact that Trump and his supporters have the guts to revisit the shooting site “epitomizes the American spirit.”

It shows “he’s not going to be pushed around, and we’re not going to be pushed around,” Jones said, calling the return to Butler “a reckoning.”

He and his wife, Donna, told The Epoch Times that they were first-time Trump rallygoers at the time of the shooting.

The rally came to an abrupt, shocking halt just nine minutes after Trump took the stage; an estimated 15,000 people, including the Joneses, had waited all day in searing summer heat. They had just finished cheering loudly as Trump took the stage and started speaking when the shots rang out.

Trump has joked that he is tempted to start his Oct. 5 speech with the words, “As I was saying.” But, on a serious note, the Trump campaign says the program will feature a tribute to Comperatore and the two supporters who suffered serious gunshot wounds, David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74.

Donna Jones said returning to Butler for a rally demonstrates that Trump “is going to stand strong no matter what.”

“I mean, you admire somebody like that, who’s willing to go back to where he was almost killed,” she said.

The former president suffered a wounded right ear, and says he survived only “by the grace of God.” At just the right moment, he turned his head to look at a chart, avoiding a direct hit from the bullet.

The Joneses say the shooting changed them forever.

Their sentiments about returning to Butler are similar to those of a seasoned TV reporter and one of Trump’s most recognizable rally regulars.

Pennsylvania residents Donna and Brad Jones were attending their first rally for former President Donald Trump on July 13, 2024, at the Butler Farm Show in Butler Township, Pennsylvania, prior to an assassination attempt that wounded the former president. Courtesy of Brad Jones

Reporter Seeks Closure

TV reporter Vanessa Broussard is among the journalists who were reporting live on the event that some now call “J13.”

She had covered dozens of Trump appearances for Right Side Broadcasting Network since 2022.

To protect herself, Broussard jumped down from a four-foot-high media platform where TV crews were positioned. She landed on the ground below and stayed low. “I don’t even remember grabbing the mic,” she told The Epoch Times. But a recording of her broadcast proves that she continued to describe what she saw.

While lying on her stomach, she reported: “Breaking news coming in ... shots fired, seem to be shots fired at the Trump rally. President Trump has been shot. We know he hit the ground. ... Shots are still continuing to be fired.”

TV journalist Vanessa Broussard in a 2024 photo. Cedar Rose Photography

Then after a few tense moments, Broussard exclaimed, “He’s up, everybody!”

Now representing her own independent company, Vanessa Broussard Media, she will be traveling from her Texas home to Butler.

Broussard said she will produce a special video report titled, “Back to Butler,” with the help of two videographers.

“I feel like going back to Butler will bring me closure. I remember it being a quaint country town. It was a beautiful drive there and the farm was pretty and peaceful,” she  said. “I want to remember Butler as that, not as a chaotic crime scene.”

Brick Suit Man Expresses Resolve

Another person who had a close view of the shooting was Blake Marnell, who sat in the front row, directly in front of Trump’s podium.

Since 2019, Marnell has been attending Trump rallies wearing a suit and tie printed with a brick wall motif. Marnell said the suit signals his support for Trump’s determination to stem illegal immigration by completing a barrier wall along the U.S.–Mexico border.

That’s why Marnell is better known as “Brick Suit” or “Mr. Wall;” his attention-grabbing suit is easily spotted in most TV footage of the shooting.

Like many people who were there, Marnell said memories of the traumatic incident come back to him often, “in a very distracting way.”

Marnell said he hasn’t heard of any July 13 attendees who are too upset to return for the Oct. 5 rally, but such a reaction would be understandable.

“When I think about how close it was to being a ‘worst-case scenario,’ that’s the most difficult part,” he said, expressing gratitude that Trump survived while lamenting Comperatore’s death and the serious injuries to the other two men.

Marnell, who lives in San Diego, has taken vacation time from his sales job to attend several recent Trump rallies, including the one rescheduled for Butler.

Although his emotions remind him “bad things happened there,” Marnell said, “I just really take to heart what President Trump put out on Truth Social, and the main thrust was ‘fear not; don’t let fear ruin what you’re trying to accomplish.'”

Trump recalled seeing Marnell in the front row at Butler on July 13, he told an audience in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 29.

Pointing to Marnell in the Erie crowd, the former president recounted seeing many people, including “Mr. Wall,” standing their ground amid the hail of bullets.

“It was an amazing thing to see, frankly; it was real bravery,” for people who stood, watched, and “wanted to know what could they do to help,” Trump said.

The Erie audience burst out laughing when Trump vowed to purchase a suit like Marnell’s. “I’m gonna walk onto this platform someday in some place, and I’m gonna wear that ugly, horrible suit, because it’s emblematic of what we’ve done,” the former president said.

“The suit is meant to be shocking and garish,” Marnell said; he considered it a compliment that Trump has singled out him and his suit several times. In fact, Trump summoned Marnell onstage the first time he wore the suit on May 20, 2019.

“I’ve been Brick Suit ever since,” Marnell wrote on social media.

Asked how many rallies he has attended, Marnell responds: “Too many to count.”

He was originally motivated to see Trump in person and “hear his message.”

Now he also looks forward to “all the people that you meet while you’re waiting for the rally to start,” Marnell said.

Blake Marnell, also known as "Brick Suit" or "Mr. Wall" because of his wall-themed suit-and-tie, appears in a selfie taken at the Butler Farm Show on July 13, 2024, several hours prior to a gunman's attempt to kill former President Donald Trump. Blake Marnell

Upcoming Rally Safest?

Everyone who was at the July 13 Butler rally is bonded together by events of that day, he said.

On Sept. 30, five days ahead of the former president’s planned return to Butler, Marnell drove to the Butler rally grounds. He saw security was already set up; officers checked on his vehicle’s license plate. That reassured him.

The U.S. Secret Service has faced scorching criticism over security failures that the July 13 shooting exposed.

Two months later, a Secret Service agent foiled an apparent assassination attempt while Trump played golf in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15.

Trump said he was grateful for the astute, fast-acting agent who fired his weapon after spotting a rifle barrel protruding along a fence line, partially concealed with brush.

However, the agency faced criticism for failing to notice the accused aspiring assassin sooner. Ryan Wesley Routh had allegedly been lying in wait for 12 hours.

Routh fled the area but was arrested later; his cellphone records showed he had been lurking around the golf course for nearly 12 hours before the incident at the Trump International Golf Club.

Since then, a number of congressional leaders, including Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas), have expressed continuing misgivings over the agency’s ability to protect Trump.

In addition, Trump has disclosed that U.S. intelligence officials briefed him about Iranians’ specific threats to his life.

The Joneses say security concerns remain in the backs of their minds; they were shocked by the dearth of security they noticed on July 13.

The Epoch Times contacted the Secret Service for comment but received no reply prior to publication.

Marnell thinks the scrutiny will inspire the Secret Service to be on its highest alert for the Oct. 5 rally, in conjunction with local law enforcement.

“This upcoming rally at Butler will likely be safer than any other rally I’ve ever been to,” he said.