Gene J. Puskar/AP
A man who said he witnessed the shooting at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday told the BBC in a video interview that he saw a man with a gun crawling along the roof of a nearby building outside the rally and later saw the Secret Service kill the suspect shooter.
The man told the BBC he'd gathered with friends before the rally and said they were watching it from outside the fenced-in location.
"We noticed a guy bear crawling up the roof of the building beside us, probably 50 feet away," he told the BBC. "So we're pointing at the guy crawling up the roof…he had a rifle; we could clearly see him with a rifle."
The man told the BBC he and his friends were pointing at the man to the Secret Service and alerted local police.
"The police were like, 'Huh, what?' Like they didn't know what was going on," he said. "I'm thinking, why is Trump still speaking? I'm pointing at the roof… for two to three minutes, and the Secret Service is just looking at us.
"Next thing you know, five shots ring out," he said.
The BBC interview asked if he was certain the shots came from the roof.
"100%," the man said. "We were telling the police, we were telling the Secret Service."
The BBC asked what happened to the shooter.
"They blew his head off," he said. "Secret Service blew his head off."
Business Insider could not immediately confirm the details of this witness's account.
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, 2024
The gunman and an attendee at the rally were killed, according to a local district attorney. Trump appeared bloodied in the shooting. The Secret Service has since released a statement saying the former president is safe.
