Security expert says operation to protect Trump was 'apocalyptic disaster' during assassination attempt
A security expert with over 30 years in the business has said the operation to protect Trump at a rally where he was shot at was an 'absolutely apocalyptic disaster'.
On 13 July someone attempted to assassinate former US president Donald Trump as he held a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Shots rang out while he was delivering a speech and Trump clutched a bleeding ear as Secret Service snipers responded and returned fire on the shooter, killing them.
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As Trump was bundled away by security he got up and raised his fist to the crowd, the gunman was later identified as 20-year-old Pennsylvania man Thomas Matthew Crooks, a registered Republican voter.
He had taken up a position on the roof of a building near the rally with a line of sight to Trump's stage, and security expert Will Geddes said it was an 'absolute joke' that Crooks was able to line up a shot and fire.
One person attending the rally was killed in the shooting and two more critically injured, while Trump came within millimetres of being killed.
In the aftermath of the assassination attempt many people are wondering how on Earth someone was able to get into a position where they could take a shot at Trump, and the expert couldn't believe it had been allowed to happen.
"That is one of the basics when you're when you're protecting a principal," he said of the need for the US Secret Service to look at every potential vantage point, a 'principal' here being the main person someone is assigned to protect.
"I've looked after a number of former heads of state and VIPs if they're in a rally, or if they're performing or if they're in a location where potentially they're going to be in a public area or an open area.
"You look at every possible point where the threats could potentially come from, including elevated positions, which is why you will have spotters, whether they be armed or not.
"You will have people in elevated positions, even with binoculars, looking into the crowd, looking at the same eyeline that you may be at and above to see if anybody else may have a vantage point, potentially to shoot or strike against the potential target."
The security expert also said that another part of the events on Saturday (13 July) which was an error was 'the Secret Service not moving him, clearing him off what we call the X'.
Geddes explained that 'the X' is the spot 'where the principal is when the attack is taking place'.
"The X is what we want to move them off as quickly as possible," he said of the moment when shots were first fired and agents rushed to Trump to cover him, and criticised them not getting him off the X or protecting their principal properly.
Geddes said that he saw 'Secret Service agents fumbling their weapons trying to re-holster them' and others who 'weren't even as tall as Donald Trump' which meant they were 'providing no human shield benefit whatsoever'.
After the shots were fired Trump was able to stand up on stage and raise his fist, it produced a dramatic photo but Geddes said they should have been getting him out of there as 'there could have been more than one shooter'.
Reporting in the aftermath of the shooting has put the Secret Service under scrutiny for how this ended up happening.
After the shooting, eyewitnesses claimed to the BBC that they had spent minutes pointing out that Crooks was on top of a roof with a gun to police but nothing was done about it.
According to Geddes 'the area where the would-be assassin was actually located shouldn't have actually been accessible' to the public during the rally.
He said: "That should have been closed off, that should have had security, whether it be local PD, private security or whoever there was.
"There's all sorts of technology the US Secret Service have that are available. They can run drones, they could run aerial reconnaissance, all sorts of stuff which could potentially forewarn them of possible trouble, of someone suspicious in the area.
"So this guy being in a vantage point where he could take a direct line shot against Donald Trump was just beyond comprehension.
"Unbelievable, unbelievable, I would say just the worst level of embarrassment."
Topics: Donald Trump, US News
Joe Harker