Witnesses frantically tried to warn police of rifle-carrying sniper on roof before Trump assassination attempt
By Katherine Donlevy,
2024-07-14
Witnesses desperately tried to warn police that a rifle-toting sniper was crawling on a roof moments before gunfire erupted at the Trump rally Saturday.
“You could clearly see him with a rifle,” the man, wearing a MAGA 2020 hat, told BBC News.
“We’re pointing at him. The police are down there running around on the ground.
“We’re like, ‘Hey, man, this guy on the roof with a rifle.’ And the police were like, ‘Huh?’ They didn’t know what was going on.”
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, 2024Rifle used in Trump assassination attempt belonged to shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks’ father: report
The witness claimed he and his friends tried warning police for several minutes as Secret Service members watched on, choosing not to take action until between five and eight shots were fired, the origins of which he said “100%” came from the rifle-carrying man .
“He was up there for a couple of minutes, absolutely at least three, four minutes. We were pointing at him for the Secret Service, who were looking at us from the top of the barn. They were looking at us the whole time.”
Speaker Johnson likens Trump to Abe Lincoln, says country ‘can’t go on like this’
A witness to the shooting at Donald Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, says he saw the gunman on a roof and flagged the suspect to police right before shots rang out. https://t.co/nSwmWOaGFa pic.twitter.com/exD1ONtdih
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 14, 2024CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR MORNING REPORT NEWSLETTER
Only after the gunman fired did police neutralize the threat: “They blew his head off.”
Elon Musk posted the video on X , writing, “The head of the Secret Service and the leader of this security detail should resign.”
Another witness to the attempted assassination said he twice tried to warn a police officer about the gunman before the shots rang out.
The rally-goer, who was not identified, told CBS News that he was waiting for Trump like everyone else when he noticed a suspicious figure above.
“I seen 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…. And I went back to tell the officer that if he came over there he could see them and when I turned my back was when the shots started.”
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