Dr. Joseph Meyn had his phone out and was recording video when he heard shots at former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in western Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 13.
“I knew right away what it was,” Meyn tells PEOPLE. “It was an AR-15. I saw the round sail on.”
Meyn was only about 10 yards away from a man whom he says was shot in the head.
“There was a man standing in the bleachers and he took a direct hit to the head and he was killed instantly,” Meyn says. “I mean, his whole head exploded.”
One bystander was killed and two others were injured in what the FBI has called an assassination attempt of the former President. Trump, 78, was injured in the incident, with blood running down his face, before being removed safely from the scene by Secret Service agents.
The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, died, the Secret Service confirmed. The identify of the victim has not been publicly disclosed.
Meyn, a doctor, says he decided to attend the rally after being convinced by friends. When the shooting stopped, Meyn says he jumped into action, hopping over a barrier to try to get to the person who had seen get shot.
“I said, ‘Hey, look, I’m a surgeon. I can help,’ and one of the EMTs was there,” Meyn recalls. “She says, ‘No, he’s dead.’ ”
Meyn says he helped move the man off the bleachers before EMTs moved his body into a tent. He also saw who he believed was the victim’s family standing on the bleachers, in shock.
“I will never forget this until the day I die, there was a young woman in her 20s or 30s, it looked like she was in her 20s, hysterically crying, asking if he was going to be okay,” Meyn says. “Someone, I think it was the medic, whoever was there, said, ‘No, he’s dead.’ And she was just hysterical.
“I guess you have training when you’re a doctor, and I figured people needed help,” Meyn continues. “So I went and I jumped the barrier to go take a look. And there’s not a lot you can do.”
Meyn says he spoke to the FBI for an extended period of time and didn’t return home until just before midnight.
“It’s like a shark attack,” Meyn says. “It’s a bolt out of the blue. You don’t expect it. And then when it hits, it’s in slow motion. Every second feels like an hour, and then you spring into action and it accelerates again. It’s something you shouldn’t have to experience at a political rally. And it just makes me really wonder why I’m ever going to one of these things.”
