According to a report published by the Vanguard Newspaper on July 14, 2024, an eyewitness provided an account of a man with a rifle seen on the rooftop of a building near a campaign rally where Donald Trump was speaking. The eyewitness claimed that the police were slow to respond after being alerted about the situation, allowing Trump to continue his speech.
According to the witness, identified as Greg and interviewed by the BBC, the armed man had crawled onto a building's rooftop just outside the event venue. Greg stated that he promptly notified law enforcement about the sighting, specifically pointing out the gunman to them. He recalled seeing the individual with the rifle approximately five minutes into Trump's speech.
Describing the scene, Greg recounted, "We noticed the guy bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50ft away from us. He had a rifle, we could see a rifle. We're pointing at him, 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 did not know what was going on." Greg expressed his puzzlement as to why Trump was allowed to continue speaking without being removed from the stage. Soon after, five shots were fired.