A witness has provided a detailed account of the moments leading up to the assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump during his election campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
Greg Smith, who was attending the rally, reported seeing a man with a rifle on a rooftop just minutes before shots were fired. According to Smith, the gunman had crawled onto the roof of a building about 50 feet away from the rally venue.
Smith immediately alerted the police by pointing out the armed man. The shooter, later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, took aim and fired at Trump, grazing his ear with a bullet.
The Secret Service responded swiftly, shooting Crooks dead on the spot. Smith recounted to the BBC how he saw the agents take down the gunman. “We noticed the guy bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away,” Smith 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."
Smith criticized the security measures at the event, questioning why there was no Secret Service presence on the surrounding rooftops. “This is not a big place. [It’s a] security failure, 100% security failure,” he stated. “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.”
The incident has raised significant concerns about security protocols at campaign events, especially as the presidential race intensifies.
Watch video below...
Anthony Davis reports on the moment Donald Trump was hit after a gunman attempted an apparent assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania. Davis also shares a viral BBC interview with a witness on the scene.
— Eagle Eye (@SortedEagle) July 14, 2024
The witness is saying he saw the guy crawling on the roof with a rifle and… pic.twitter.com/Y91q2oJBiE
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