The witness told the BBC that after 5 to 7 minutes of Trump speaking, he saw a man with a rifle crawling up the roof of the building on the side which was apparently 50 feet away from them.
A witness has revealed that he spotted the gunman on the roof at Donald Trump's Pennsylvania rally and tried to alert the Secret Service some minutes before the shooting.
Despite his repeated attempts to point out the shooter, the Secret Service seemingly ignored his warnings, and the assassination attempt went ahead.
The witness told the BBC that after 5 to 7 minutes of Trump speaking, he saw a man with a rifle crawling up the roof of the building on the side which was apparently 50 feet away from them.
He said he along with other people started pointing to the man who was carrying a rifle and that they even pointed it out to the police who were there to guard Trump and maintain control but they were ignored and no action was taken until the shooter fired a shot.
The witness told the BBC, “We noticed the guy crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away from us. He had a rifle; we could clearly see him with a rifle.
“Next thing you know, I’m thinking to myself why is Trump still speaking? Why have they not pulled him off the stage?
“They didn’t know what was going on. I thought to myself why is Trump still speaking and why has the security not pulled him off the stage?
“I was standing there pointing at the shooter for 2-3 minutes and the Secret Service was looking at us from the top of the barn and I kept pointing at the roof. Next thing I know, shots were fired.”
The witness told the BBC that he saw the Secret Service kill the gunman he had seen on the roof.
He said, “They blew his head off. They (Secret Service) crawled up on the roof. They had their guns pointed at him to make sure he was dead. He was dead. And that was it. It was over.”
On Sunday, the FBI in a statement identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania and a registered Republican.
The Secret Service confirmed Crooks dead but law enforcement officials told reporters that they had not yet determined a motive for the attack on Trump.