Serious accusations after Trump assassination attempt Eyewitnesses saw shooter "climbing from roof to roof"

After the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, eyewitnesses reported that the shooter had been lying on the roof for minutes. The police did not react.

Shots ring out and screams can be heard, onlookers throw themselves to the ground. Secret Service officers rush over to protect Donald Trump - the former US president for whom the crowd had been waiting in the sun for hours.

The lectern on the square in the small town of Butler in the state of Pennsylvania, where the 78-year-old was speaking just a few seconds before, is swaying. The Republican's supporters gasp for air as Trump, who is shielded by the officials with their bodies, is helped back to his feet.

The 78-year-old looks dazed. He has lost his red cap - but that doesn't stop him from raising his fist. Applause and cheers ring out. "USA, USA", chant the supporters as Trump is led unsteadily down the steps from the stage to his waiting armored SUV.

Serious accusations against security officers

According to eyewitness Greg Smith, he saw the shooter on a rooftop minutes before the assassination attempt. He had alerted the police to him, but they had paid no attention to him. "I ask myself: 'Why is Trump still talking? Why didn't they get him off the stage?' And suddenly five shots are fired," Smith said in a BBC interview.

The shooter had climbed up the roof around 15 meters away from him. "He had a rifle, we could clearly see a rifle." Why there was no security guard on the roof is inexplicable to Smith. "Why isn't there secret service on all the roofs here? This is not a big place. It's a security failure, a 100 percent security failure."

"We knew then that it was a gunshot"

"They're not going to get you down," shouts a man in the crowd as Trump's security guards form a human chain to keep him safe. Trump himself raises his fist even as he is taken into the vehicle.

Erin Autenreith says she was sitting in the front row "right in front of Trump". "I was so excited. I just looked at him," says the 66-year-old from Glenshaw in the north-eastern state of Pennsylvania. "Then I heard this popping sound. It sounded like something on the 4th of July," she says, referring to the national holiday in the USA.

"But when they all jumped on stage, surrounded him and put him on the ground - that's when we realized it really must have been a gunshot," says Autenreith, who was attending a Trump rally for the sixth time and helped with the event throughout the day. "Then more people came and cleared the area."

Several dead and injured

Afterwards, Trump was able to stand up. The 78-year-old said: "Let me get my shoes," says Autenreith - the Republican's words can also be heard on video recordings of the incident. They were the first words Trump had spoken.

"And I saw on his cheek, on the right side, because he was just sitting up, (...) a little bit of blood," says the 66-year-old. Trump himself later wrote in an online network Truth Social that a bullet had "pierced the upper part of my right ear".

According to the Secret Service, two bystanders are also injured, both seriously. The suspected shooter and a bystander were killed.

"Man next to me was killed instantly"

On NBC News, an eyewitness describes how the man next to him was shot. "I heard several shots. The man next to me was shot in the head, he was killed instantly, fell to the floor of the bleachers," said the man, whose name is given as Joseph.

Another woman was apparently hit in the forearm or hand. The witness said it looked like the victim was in the line of fire between the shooter and Trump.

As the crowd becomes aware of what has happened, the atmosphere heats up. Some Trump supporters insult the media representatives who are in the square. "This is what you wanted, isn't it?" says a man who does not want to give his name.

Dozens of people make vulgar gestures in the direction from which the shots appeared to have come. According to Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger, the shooter had been outside the compound, shooting from an elevated point, according to the Secret Service.

"Go, go, go," a Secret Service agent says as officials try to evacuate the thousands of people attending the campaign event. "This is a crime scene," says another. A police helicopter is also deployed and a large police van is maneuvered through the crowds.

Some visitors to the event denounce security shortcomings. "Nice way to organize a barrier," shouts a woman as she leaves. Another woman sobs and asks how Trump is doing. At the back of the square, a group kneels and prays.

59-year-old Blake Marnell, who was sitting in the front row, says that when Trump was able to stand up, he had the impression that the officials wanted to get him off the stage. But Trump wanted to stay there and shake his fist at the world.

"I never thought I would experience this," says the man from San Diego about the shooting. "It's an incredibly sad day."