A witness at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday said in an interview with BBC following an assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump that he saw a gunman several minutes before the attack climb a nearby roof.
“We noticed the guy crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away from us,” the witness named Greg said. “He had a rifle, we could clearly see him with a rifle.”
The witness told the BBC reporter he and other bystanders allegedly tried to notify police and Secret Service about the armed man. The testimony from the witness has not been verified by BBC or Breitbart News.
“Next thing you know, I’m thinking to myself why is Trump still speaking? Why have they not pulled him off the stage?” the witness said. “I’m standing there pointing at him… the next thing you know, five shots ring out.”
The witness estimated that the alleged gunman was on the roof for at least three or four minutes before shots rang out at the rally. The witness also surmised that Secret Service and police may not have been able to see the alleged shooter because of how the roof sloped to conceal the suspect.
“But why is there not Secret Service on all of these roofs here? I mean, this is not a big place,” he said to the BBC reporter.
BBC’s Washington correspondent Gary O’Donoghue wrote that more eyewitnesses he has spoken to believe the shooting “may well have come from a one-store building off to the right of the stage where Donald Trump was speaking…”
“It’s a building with a white roof, and one witness told me that he saw a man crawl onto that roof with a rifle and he then attempted to tell law enforcement about the man. Then, a few minutes later what appeared to be gunfire rang out,” he continued, again noting that reports are not fully verified. “Several witnesses have confirmed to me that’s where they believe the shooting came from.”
Unverified videos have been circulating on social media showing what appears to be a body on top of a white roof that is allegedly located near the rally.
More unverified video on social media shows law enforcement appearing to remove a body from the rally.
The witness told BBC he saw Secret Service kill the gunman he had seen on the roof.
“They blew his head off,” he alleged.
“[Secret Service] crawled up on the roof. They had their guns pointed at [the alleged shooter] [to]make sure he was dead. He was dead. And that was it. It was over,” the witness alleged.
At 8:49 p.m., Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi put out a statement confirming the suspected shooter “fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue.” Guiglielmi said Secret Service “neutralized the shooter, who is now deceased.
CBS News also spoke to a witness who allegedly saw the suspected shooter climb to the nearby roof. That witness said he tried to alert law enforcement about what he saw before gunfire began.“I saw a guy on top of one of the buildings, go in between one building to the next, and [I] went and told the officer that he was up there. And when I went back to my spot, I heard that people could still see the person from where they were standing. So I checked that out, and I…went back to tell the officer that if he came over there he could see [the suspect],” the witness told the reporter. “And when I turned my back, it’s…when the shots started…”
“One spectator was killed, two spectators were critically injured. The incident is currently under investigation and the Secret Service has formally notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” he said.