“He had something on his belly. I don’t know what it was,” Newton said. “Somebody yelled gun and everyone jumped on him. My friend put his knee on his head but he kept getting up.”
Tami Kasovich of El Dorado Hills, Calif., said she saw part of the altercation as well.
“They had their knee in his back and then all of a sudden this guy that I had been with today yelled, ‘He’s got a gun! He’s got a gun!’” she said.
Kasovich and her husband, Tony, said they did not see a gun and only heard people shouting about the possible weapon.
“I could see letters on it,” Mr. Kasovich said. “It wasn’t like it was a fabricated object of some sort. It looked like a sign that was folded.”
Annette Hall said the altercation started when a man tried to grab another man’s sign at the rally.
"There was a man that was holding a sign that said Republicans for Trump and some guy tried to get it,” Hall said. “There was a fight with a bunch of guys. ...Someone knocked the guy down and said he had a gun."