Mayor of Slippery Rock, PA, and Marine Jondavid Longo spoke with the Gateway Pundit about the attempted assassination of President Trump on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I covered my wife up, who I just recently found out was pregnant. And I started scanning behind me because I wasn’t quite sure where those rounds were coming from. I just knew they were coming from behind us because the rounds were going right over us,” Mayor Longo said.
“Through the bleachers. But in the direction of the President. At first, I thought, God forbid, someone seated behind us with a gun. That sound, that I recognized, didn’t sound like it was coming from a concealed pistol. Rather, it sounded like something that was coming from a long distance. You can kind of hear that whiz.”
Mayor Longo only heard three gunshots from the gunman.
“I only for certain heard three gunshots from the gunman.”
“Despite being a Marine, and being in combat situations, when you’re at home, and keep in mind I’ve been home since 2011, was the last time I was in Afghanistan, so, I’m still vigilant and still cautious I’d like to think but the fact is that you’re not primed in that moment, when you’re at home and at a rally like this and Donald J. Trump and a bunch of other members of government are in attendance, you just don’t think that that could have been a possibility in 2024, and in Butler County, which is this staunch-red conservative County that adores Donald Trump.”
Mayor Longo also witnessed the aftermath of the murder of Corey Comperatore.
Longo says that the crowd was remarkably calm under fire.
“We all tried to do our part. I didn’t do anything special, I did what any father or husband would do in that situation and in that time.”
“When President Trump stood back up again, it was a weird set of emotions, it was pure elation in that moment. It was relief. Thank God they didn’t kill him. It was inspirational. He wrangled his arms from the Secret Service.”
“It was triumphant defiance.”
Trump was last in Butler on Halloween 2020, October 31, 2020.
In 2020, the Trump Rally took different security measures than what was in place in 2024, according to Mayor Longo. The security in 2020 was in a more secured area.
“At the Butler Airport in 2020, the venue was a lot more closed off, there were a lot of airplane hangars around us. There were law enforcement agents and Secret Service agents, and I remember teams on every one of the hangars around us. All of the buildings were covered. If you compare that to the Butler Air Show in 2024, we’re out in the middle of the field. Lots of openness. It was a very open venue. Driving into the place, you saw a lot of police officers, Secret Service, and orderly attendees. Everyone thought that there’s no way this could be gunfire. How could anyone get to a point where you could fire into this venue…”
“Everyone’s mind is boggled on this point right now.”
