A bystander has narrated how he and some other onlookers spotted a man – holding a rifle – crawling up to a nearby rooftop during former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, seven minutes after the former President had started his speech.
According to him, he was one of those trying to get the attention of members of Trump’s security detail, pointing out the man on the roof with a rifle, but the Policemen on the ground didn’t seem to respond or see what they were pointing out.
He said he wondered to himself, “Why is Trump still speaking? Why has the Secret Service not pulled him off the stage?”
He was particularly baffled because the Secret Service was looking right at him and other bystanders as they pointed to the rooftop where the gunman was situated on the roof, and seemed to do nothing.
He said for up to two or three minutes people were frantically gesticulating to the Secret Service, without success, and then about five shots rang out, and the Secret Service jumped in to handle the situation.
This narration will be worrying for many Americans, and it particularly indicts the Secret Service, because there are so many questions that don’t have clear answers.
Why was a rooftop so close to the podium at a presidential campaign rally left uncovered? Why did the Secret Service react so poorly to the warnings and alerts of the bystanders who were pointing at the roof?
The United States has to investigate this.
