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Video shows Trump rally attendees alerting police to gunman before assassination attempt – LifeSite

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PENNSYLVANIA (LifeSiteNews) — Video footage has emerged online of attendees from Saturday’s Trump rally alerting police to a gunman positioned on a roof toward the rally stage, highlighting one of many security failures that day to prevent the assassination attempt.

NBC News shared on Monday a video showing the would-be assassin positioning himself on a roof near the rally. “Officer,” one man calls out, in apparent attempt to alert him to the gunman, later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks. “He’s on the roof,” one woman can be heard yelling. “He’s right here, right on the roof.”

The video was reportedly recorded “moments” before Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump. He instead shot his ear, and killed a rally attendee, identified as 50-year old Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief. Two other Pennsylvania residents were shot, but are reportedly in stable condition.

Other videos have been shared online showing people present at the event testifying to having alerted police security to the presence of Crooks before the attempted assassination. BBC News interviewed a man who shared that he and others could see Crooks on the roof and that he “clearly had a rifle.”

“We’re pointing at the guy crawling up the roof… 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 were like ‘Huh? What?’ Like they didn’t know what was going on.”

“I’m standing there pointing at him for like two, three minutes. Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn, pointing at that roof. And next thing you know, five shots ring out,” he continued. Trump’s security fired at Crooks only after he had shot at Trump and killed a man in the crowd.

Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino has shared that according to his sources, security personnel were monitoring Crooks as a suspect “from the minute” he approached the event, and then lost track of him. Bongino shared that there were very few Secret Service personnel present that day, and that event security was mostly delegated to local police. Fox News reported that the building Crooks used to shoot from was the “responsibility” of local police.

Bongino slammed the events as “an absolutely apocalyptic security failure” on a Monday episode of The Dan Bongino Show. 

“Where was the perimeter surveillance team and how did they miss it?” said Bongino, noting that there are “specific Secret Service security personnel and law enforcement” dedicated to surveilling potential threats to a president. He also questioned why there was no aerial surveillance, such as a helicopter or drones.

“How is it that the crowd on the ground picked out the surveillance security threat and they missed it?” Bongino questioned.

Remarkably, the rooftop from which Crooks shot was “was identified by the Secret Service as a potential vulnerability in the days before the event,” sources told NBC News. 

A former senior Secret Service agent also pointed out that even if local police “did drop the ball,” it is still Secret Service’s responsibility “to ensure that they are following through either beforehand or in the moment.”

Bongino called for the “immediate” resignation of the Director of the U.S. Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, in an interview with Fox News’ Jesse Watters.

“She has disgraced the Secret Service multiple times. She needs to be fired ASAP,” Bongino said, though added that he thinks Biden Department of Homeland Security Chief Alejandro Mayorkas is unwilling to remove her. 

X CEO Elon Musk has also called for the resignation of Cheatle and the “head” of the day’s security detail. 

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