Video Footage Shows Witnesses Alerting Police About the Gunman Moments Before He Fired at Trump

The unfortunate incident that occurred at Donald Trump's rally on 13th July has elicited concern about the safety of the political leaders during their campaigns. Some of the witnesses of the assassination attempt have also come up with some troubling information. A video from the evening captures a man with a rifle on a rooftop moments before shots were fired at Trump. It also shows some people trying to gain the police’s attention by shouting as the active shooter moved on the roof area, as reported by Fox News.

Attendees tried to alert authorities approximately 86 seconds before the gunman opened fire. Additional footage shows a chaotic scene with people running, while some can be heard shouting that the man on the roof was armed. The man who shot the video was yelling, "Look, they're all pointing. There he is right there. Right there, you see him? He's lying down, you see him? What's happening." Another woman was heard shouting, "He's on the roof. Right here." Another witness, Greg Smith, also reported that he alerted the police and claimed that he spotted the gunman about five minutes into Trump's speech.

Smith said, "We noticed the guy bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50ft away. 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." As reported by BBC, he added, "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." He then asked, "Why is there no Secret Service on all of these roofs here? This is not a big place. [It's a] security failure, 100% security failure."

According to these reports, police were aware of the gunman before he began firing. Hence, the Secret Service is now under growing pressure to respond to what observers view as a severe security failure. The shooting led to one death and the critical injury of two more people. However, while some lawmakers dismissed calls for her resignation, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle declared that she had no such intention. As reported by CNBC, she said, "I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary."

FBI Director Christopher Wray also said, "We have committed the full force of the FBI to this investigation. The American people can rest assured that we will leave no stone unturned as we work to get to the bottom of what happened." House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, wrote in a letter, "The seriousness of this security failure and chilling moment in our nation's history cannot be understated." Four sniper teams were present at the rally from the Secret Service and local law enforcement. The building where the gunman fired was a designated location for one of the local counter-sniper teams.