Donald Trump’s security was warned about a gunman on a roof “three or four minutes” before shots were fired at the former president’s rally, an eyewitness claims.
The man, who was outside the grounds of the event, said he and his friends frantically drew the attention of the police when they noticed a person crawling onto a rooftop with a rifle while Trump was onstage in Pennsylvania.
He claimed that minutes later, the gunman was still in position and managed to fire five times before the secret service “blew his head off”.
The account will raise questions about how security lapses at the rally, where Trump – who is expected to be formally named the Republican candidate for president on Wednesday – was pictured with blood streaming from his ear.
this BBC interview with a guy outside the security perimeter who claims he saw the shooter before he fired is absolutely wild pic.twitter.com/vJpKZTxSAe
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) July 13, 2024
An audience member was killed while another was seriously wounded in the incident, which is being investigated as an assassination attempt. The gunman was shot dead by snipers.
“We noticed the guy crawling, bear-crawling, up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away from us,” the eyewitness, wearing a “Trump 2020” hat, told BBC News.
“So we’re standing there you know, we’re pointing, we’re pointing at the guy crawling up the roof… he had a rifle. You can clearly see him with a rifle. Absolutely.”
He said he and his friends were “pointing” at the man for “two or three minutes” but police did not respond.
“The police are down there running around on the ground,” the witness said. “We’re like, ‘Hey, man, there’s a guy on the roof for the rifle. And the police were like, ‘huh, what’ – they didn’t know what was going on.
“We’re like ‘hey right here on the roof, we can see him from right here.’
“And next thing you know, I’m like, I’m thinking to myself, I’m like, ‘Why is Trump still speaking? Why have they not pulled him off the stage?
“I’m standing there pointing at him for, you know, two or three minutes. Secret Service is looking at us… I’m pointing at that roof, just standing there… And next thing you know, five shots rang out.”
Responding to the interview, Elon Musk, the billionaire businessman who endorsed Trump’s presidential bid, said on social media: “The head of the Secret Service and the leader of this security detail should resign.”
Richard Goldinger, the Butler County district attorney, suggested that the security services had “maybe got a little lackadaisical” and thought that “this wouldn’t happen to a president or a former president”.
“He [the shooter] was outside of the ground, so to speak,” Mr Goldinger told CNN. “So quite frankly, I don’t know how he would have gotten to the location where he was but he was outside the grounds and I think that’s something that we’re gonna have to figure out how he got there.”
The witness said Trump’s security may not have been able to spot the gunman because of the way the roof sloped, but questioned why they had not taken up positions on the surrounding buildings.
“This is not a big place… There’ s only a few buildings around here. Why is secret service not on every building here?” he asked.
He continued: “They blew his head off, secret service blew his head off… They crawled up on the roof, they had their guns pointed at him, they made sure he was dead – he was dead. And that was it. It was over.”
The gunman was dressed in “muted colours, tan type clothing”, the witness said, adding: “We saw the rifle flinging around as he was trying to crawl.”
Unverified footage circulated on social media, apparently outside the rally, shows a body dressed in light grey colours lying on a low building.
Footage shows the gunman’s initial volley of shots is followed immediately by louder gunshots – apparently from police marksmen, stationed on a barn adjacent to the rally, firing back at the suspect.
In a statement, the Secret Service confirmed the shooter was “neutralised” after multiple shots were fired towards the rally stage “from an elevated position”.
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