Last Updated:
Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
Former US President Donald Trump speaks at the Butler rally in Pennsylvania, where he was hit in the ear by a bullet in an alleged assassination attempt on July 13. (Image: Rebecca DROKE/AFP)
A video has emerged in which spectators at former US president Donald Trump’s rally can be heard shouting, trying to warn police about a man with a gun on the roof. An eyewitness also said he saw a man crawling up the roof of a building with a rifle
A new video has emerged that shows rallygoers may have spotted the gunman before an alleged assassination attempt was made on former US president Donald Trump at Butler, Pennsylvania. Spectators can be heard shouting, trying to warn police about a man with a gun on the roof.
“He’s got a gun, he’s got a gun, he’s on the roof,” they are shouting in the video as shots are heard in the background. Trump, who escaped the attack with an ear injury, was rushed off stage by the Secret Service and whisked away in a black SUV while the suspected shooter was killed by an agent.
An eyewitness to the shooting, in fact, claimed that he personally warned the police and the Secret Service about “suspicious” activity on a roof, where he spotted a man with a rifle. But, he said, he was ignored.
“We noticed a guy crawling up the roof, bear crawling up the roof of the building beside us, about 50 feet away from us. We’re standing there, pointing at the guy crawling up the roof,” he told the BBC in an interview. The video was posted by Tesla maker Elon Musk, calling for the resignation of the head of the Secret Service and the leader of Trump’s security detail.
Asked if the man had a rifle, the eyewitness, who said he had come to attend the rally but was at the back, said: “He had a rifle, we could clearly see he had a rifle. Absolutely. We’re pointing at him, the police are down there running around on the ground. They don’t know what’s going on, and we were constantly telling them, ‘Hey, man. There’s a guy on the roof with a rifle. We can see him from here, we can see him, he’s crawling’,” he told the reporter.
“And I’m thinking to myself, why’s Trump still speaking… the Secret Service was looking at us pointing to the man on the roof. And, the next thing I know, shots rang out,” he added.
Asked if he sure that the shots came from the man on the roof, the eyewitness said: “A 100 per cent. One hundred per cent!” He said the man was up on the roof for at least four minutes and all the while they were constantly pointing at him.
But, when asked if the security personnel could spot him, he said: “Probably not because the way the roof’s slope went, they could not see him. But, why is there no Secret Service on all of these roofs here? This is not a big place.”