Eyewitnesses Claim Security Lapse at Trump Rally Shooting

A witness has described the apparent security lapse that led up to the shooting at a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania, claiming he repeatedly tried to alert police to the existence of a rifle-toting man on a nearby rooftop.

The witness, identified only as Greg, told the BBC that he was attending a party outside the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday evening when he noticed a man crawling on the roof of a nearby building with a rifle.

“We noticed a guy bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us, probably 50 feet away from us,” Greg told the BBC.

He said he and his friends tried to warn police and Secret Service agents stationed on the ground and on the roof of a nearby barn, but it seemed they did not see the man due to the way the roof was sloped.

“We’re pointing at the guy crawling up the roof… 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 were like, ‘Huh? Right.’ They didn’t know what was going on.”

The witness estimated that the gunman was on the roof, in plain view, for at least three to four minutes before opening fire.

The shooting left one person attending the rally dead, along with the shooter, according to the Secret Service. Former President Trump was also injured in the incident, with a bullet grazing his ear.

The incident has raised questions about the security measures in place at the rally and the response of law enforcement to the warnings from the witness.