What CNN’s reporter saw on the ground when Trump was attacked

CNN —

CNN reporter Alayna Treene covers Donald Trump and was at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when shots rang out on Saturday. She spoke with CNN’s Zachary Wolf about what she saw.

What was supposed to be happening at this event?

TREENE: It was honestly going to be a typical rally, like any other. I have now been to – I can’t even count, upwards of 20 – the majority of Donald Trump’s rallies since he launched his third bid, and it was a scene like any other.

There’s so much security presence.

People often remark, ‘Oh, you have to be safe, be careful.’ And I often feel like being in a rally is one of the safest places, because there’s always so much Secret Service. There’s local law enforcement on the ground. You have to go through several mags (magnetometers). They have very limited options of what you can bring in. With CNN, we get security for ourselves as well, just given the divisive nature of the politics right now. So it was remarkable to me to see what had happened.

Where were you situated when the shots rang out?

When the shots went off, we were on the riser. We’re in the middle of the crowd. There’s normally a large crowd, and then we’re above them. The risers are elevated. We’re over the crowd so we can see. We’re in line with the stage, and maybe 100 yards from the stage.

We had just gone live right at the top of 6 p.m. and had begun listening to Donald Trump. Then, a couple minutes into his speech is when we had heard the pop, pop, pop. From my vantage point, it was to the left side of the stage. It was off of Donald Trump’s right shoulder.

At first I thought it was fireworks. I had no idea what it was. Everyone was looking, at least from where I was standing, like, ‘What was that?’