A man armed with a rifle was spotted on a rooftop just moments before shots were fired at a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania, according to a witness.
Greg Smith reported seeing the man crawl onto the top of a building near the event in Butler County on Friday evening and alerted the police to his presence.
He told the BBC: “I’m thinking to myself ‘Why is Trump still speaking, why have they not pulled him off the stage’… the next thing you know, five shots ring out.”
The former president was quickly surrounded by Secret Service agents and whisked away from the scene. He was later seen with blood on his face and confirmed that a bullet had grazed his ear.
Officials later confirmed that the gunman had been shot dead. Mr Smith told the BBC that he witnessed Secret Service agents shooting the man.
Mr Smith, who was outside the rally, noticed the gunman approximately five minutes into Trump’s speech.
“We noticed the guy bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50ft away,” he said. “He had a rifle, we could clearly see a rifle.”
“We’re pointing at him, the police are down there running around on the ground, we’re like ‘Hey man, there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle’… and the police did not know what was going on.”
Despite trying to alert authorities for several minutes, Mr Smith believes they probably couldn’t see the gunman due to the slope of the roof.
“Why is there not Secret Service on all of these roofs here? ” he questioned. “This is not a big place. “[It’s a] security failure, 100% security failure.
He later recounted witnessing the agents neutralise the gunman: “They crawled up on the roof, they had their guns pointed at him, made sure he was dead. He was dead, and that was it – it was over.
“Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesperson for the Secret Service, confirmed that agents had “neutralised the shooter” and “quickly responded with protective measures”.The incident is currently under investigation as an attempted assassination.One member of the crowd was killed and two others were critically injured, according to the service. Mr Smith later told the BBC that his child was “crying and begging me to take him home” following the shooting.
“There were a lot of kids up there with us who were terrified, they’re still terrified,” he added.
Another witness inside the event described dropping to the ground after hearing five gunshots in quick succession. Jason, who chose not to disclose his surname, told the BBC: “We see the Secret Service jump on Trump to protect him; everyone on the ground dropped down very quickly.”
Then he “stood up and put his fist up in the air”.
Jason added: “He was a little bloody, his ear was bleeding. He stood up and he was alive and breathing.”
An emergency department doctor at the rally informed CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, that he treated a crowd member for a gunshot wound to the head.
“I heard the shots, I thought it was firecrackers to begin with,” he stated.
“Someone over there was screaming ‘He’s been shot, he’s been shot’.”
“They guy had spun around [and was] jammed between the benches.”
“There was a lot of blood.”
