We Tried to Alert Cops Moments Before Trump Gunman Opened Fire: Witness Tells BBC
Trump was injured during a rally Saturday in Pennsylvania
A man who said he saw the gunman take his position minutes before firing shots at former President Donald Trump told the BBC that he tried to alert police about the threat but to no avail.
He said he was with a party that was not at the campaign rally but managed to walk toward the vicinity to try and hear the former president or catch a glimpse.
“We noticed a guy bear-crawling off the roof of the building beside us — 50 feet away from us,” the man said.
He said his group started to point in the direction of the shooter, who was carrying a rifle, and the police, who were nearby, started to run around “like they didn’t know what was going on.”
“We were like, ‘Right here on the roof, we can see him from right here. We can see him,’” he said.
He continued, “The next thing you know, I was thinking, ‘Why are they not pulling him off the stage? I’m standing there pointing at him for two or three minutes, Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn, I’m pointing at that roof….and next thing you know, five shots rang out.”
He said the way the roof sloped downward, it may have been challenging for law enforcement to see the shooter.
“But, I mean, why are there not Secret Service agents on all of these rooves? This is not a big place,” he said.
A Trump spokesperson said the former president is fine and the gunman is dead. One attendee has died and two are in serious condition.
Secret Service protection failed to protect President Trump today when a gunman armed with a rifle opened fire and shot Trump in the ear and several others who were attending a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. There are more questions than answers at this early stage of the investigation. But one question that sticks out in my mind the most, is how was an armed shooter with a rifle, able to position himself on the roof of a building 150 yards within shooting distance of President Trump? And was he on a suicide mission? Or had the shooter been falsely promised an avenue of escape after shooting President Trump. He only found out he had been betrayed moments before he was shot and killed by a government sniper? And where was the sniper before the shooting began? Two eye witnesses were interviewed by the BBC News Service moments after the shooting. Both men told how they spotted the shooter crawling on the roof top of a building 50 feet away from them. And that when they alerted police and secret servicemen pointing to the man on the roof of the building with a rifle, both men said they expected to see Trump whisked away by his security team. But moments later when that didn't happen they said shots suddenly rang out.
Video coverage shows President Trump speaking to the audience when suddenly a bullet stung him in the right ear just as he turned his head. Several more shots rang out in the direction of President Trump before the shooter was shot in the head and killed by a uniformed sniper.
Americans will wake up tomorrow to news reports telling those who will listen that "the gunman is dead, the case is closed, there is nothing else to see here, it's time to move on.
RFK Jr, should be on the lookout since he too was denied federal security by Biden.
The Secret Service should have secured every building (roof, windows) within 200 meters of the podium. I hope an inquest will follow - a real one - leading to better protection.
One spectator died, two were wounded. That is unacceptable.
The media were, as usual, amazing ! They made again radio instead of television, by repeatedly repeating what we just had seen, they had "experts" with little to say that yet jabbered on, and It took far too long before an anchor/reporter realized that people in the crowd were possibly hit too.