A man who attended Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday in Pennsylvania described seeing a man with a rifle bear-crawling up the roof of a nearby building before shots were fired, with one bullet striking the former president in the ear in what is being investigated as a likely assassination attempt, according to media reports.
Other witnesses described seeing at least two rally-goers being shot, with one man being shot in the head and “killed instantly.”
A man who identified himself only as Greg told reporters that he saw a man with a rifle on top of a building just outside the rally in Butler, Pa. “We noticed the guy bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away,” he said, according to the BBC. “He had a rifle. We could clearly see a rifle.”
Greg said that people were pointing the man out to police, but “the police did not know what was going on.”
“I’m thinking to myself, ‘Why is Trump still speaking? Why have they not pulled him off the stage?” Greg said. “The next thing you know, five shots ring out.”
Greg told the BBC that he witnessed Secret Service agents shoot the man. “They crawled up on the roof, they had their guns pointed at him, made sure he was dead,” Greg said. “He was dead. And that was it. It was over.”
Another man identified only as Joseph told NBC News that he was in the bleachers to the left of the podium when the shots were fired. A man a couple of yards away was shot in the head, he said.
“He was killed instantly, as far as I could tell,” said Joseph, who described himself as a doctor. “They put a towel over his head and carried him off.”
He said the man appeared to have attended the rally with family members, some of whom were hysterical. Another woman appeared to have been shot in the forearm or hand, he said.
Some people in attendance initially thought the gunshots were fireworks, Joseph said.
“I know what gunshots sound like. So, I knew they were gunshots,” he told NBC. “I just couldn’t tell where they were coming from.”
He described the entire event as “chaotic.”
Rico Elmore, who spoke before Trump on Saturday, told CNN that he jumped over a barricade to comfort a man who had been shot and was bleeding. Elmore, whose shirt was stained with blood, said he did not know the man who had been shot.
“All we know is shots were fired, and then I jumped over the barrier and put my hand on the guy’s head that was profusely bleeding,” Elmore told CNN.
Simon Levien, a reporter with the New York Times, said that people around him were screaming “get down, get down, shots fired” after the series of shots rang out. Levien said he ducked, but when he heard cheering he saw Trump raise his fist in defiance.
“Trump was just elected today, folks,” he said he heard a man shout. “He is a martyr.”