Trump Photo: PTI - Business Standard



I am not a conspiracy theorist. Far from it. But I am inherently suspicious by nature and always try to look beyond the reported “facts” and dig deeper into what some might readily accept as obvious conclusions. 36 years in policing will do that to a person.

Full disclosure – I’m not a fan of Donald Trump. But as a former President he deserves proper US Secret Service protection.

I am old enough to remember the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the decades of conspiracies and hearings that followed. I thought about that controversy in the hours and days after a shot was fired at the former President in Pennsylvania last week. I also considered the experience gained through my years involved in hundreds of operations, including providing security to elected officials at all levels; the Royal Family; U.S. Presidents and other international leaders.

Yes, I am an armchair quarterback. That’s my current role. But I am one with years of experience in various capacities, including as a member of a tactical team; a military trained police sniper; a tactical team leader; and the Commander of all the OPP’s tactical resources in Ontario. I understand all the facets of operational planning – including command and control; contingency planning; resource deployment; communications; and on and on. I lived and breathed this stuff for many years of my career, at all levels. But what I saw occur on July 13^th in Butler, Pa. was far from in-keeping with my expectations of the U.S. Secret Service.

I realize that the Secret Service cannot do it all. They do have overall responsibility for the security of the event and for the protection of the President however. The Agent in-Charge of the event determines where the inner perimeter begins and ends, and ensures the Secret Service is responsible for security within it.

But as you draw concentric circles and levels of security away from the President, they must rely on state and local police to supply various levels of protection, including lower-level tactical support; uniformed officer presence; and traffic control.  

‘Who does what’ and levels of accountability would be clearly delineated in the event’s Operational Plan, as well as reporting/communication channels established. The leaders of all the involved agencies would eventually sign-off on the final plan.

At any rate, in my view, a building with a largely flat roof and a clear view, 130 yards away from the stage where the President will be speaking, should be within the inner perimeter and under Secret Service control. The average deer hunter is able to shoot a man-sized target with a basic hunting rifle equipped with open sights at that range, so a person with a scoped rifle should be quite capable of striking a human head quite easily at that distance. That is not a location that should be staffed by local police from small-town USA. It should have been secured in a way that in which law enforcement would be on that roof – and not assassins.

Early reports indicate that some local officers were positioned inside that building, but I’m not sure what their role was. Others were reportedly on foot patrol in that area. None were on top of the building. Further reports suggest that local police were aware that there was a man with a gun trying to get on that roof for 20 minutes before shots were fired. What was communicated to the Secret Service at that point is still not publicly known.

Communication is always key and preferably all involved officers would be on the same radio channel, but the Command Centre would have personnel monitoring every police channel, real-time. The time between an officer at that site yelling “man with a gun” into their radio, to Secret Service rapidly moving the former President to safety, should be a matter of seconds.

I’m certain that Secret Service Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) dictate that when an armed threat is perceived within the inner perimeter, agents must remove the President from the threat without hesitation. The President is no longer in charge, his protectors are. Their job is to get him low to the ground to minimize his target-profile and extract him as quickly as possible, including by force if necessary. He’d be given the “Bum’s Rush” so to speak.

When Ronald Reagan was shot on a street in Washington DC in 1981, there was no fanfare. He was shoved into a vehicle hard and fast, and the vehicle sped off. He wasn’t allowed to find his shoes. He didn’t get to stand completely upright for the shooter or another assailant to finish the job while pumping his fist triumphantly.

When shots were fired at Trump, he should have been treated the exact same way – down and out of danger. Very little was known at that point and there could have been multiple snipers carrying out a coordinated-fire attack. And it’s important to note that even if the agents knew with some certainty that there was only one shooter and he had been neutralized, they should never have allowed Trump to attain a fully upright and unprotected position, for a photo-op of him raising his fist in victory like he was guerilla leader Che Guevera.

About 30 seconds passed between agents getting him on his feet until he was off the stage. That is insanity and seemed to simply be contrived showmanship by a very slightly wounded former TV star.

During his speech to the RNC days later, Trump stated: “…felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear”. The reality is that velocity of a 5.56 round should be just shy of 3000 feet per second, at 130 yards. But the bullet barely cut his ear and the wound didn’t even require stitches. Any real impact would have caused significant damage to his entire head that he would not have walked away from. Just the velocity of a high-powered rifle bullet passing so closely by his ear would normally cause immediate disorientation and temporary hearing impairment. The fact that we didn’t see that concerns me, but strange things happen that are unexplainable at times.

I also find it odd that Trump could be on a public stage less than a week later, giving a speech with his ear covered by a strange gauze pad that looked like a tiny pillow, versus a typical bandage. More showmanship?

I do not support the theory posed by some that this was an event staged by Republicans for election support purposes. My God, an innocent man was killed, and others injured. But I can see how some could perceive it that way, given the timing, the theatrics, the history of the players involved and the security failures.

I also don’t believe the other ridiculous allegations that Joe Biden tried to have his political rival killed. How stupid. I don’t think the 20-year-old assassin that failed in his assassination attempt was a member of Seal Team 6.

I am confident the FBI investigation into the event will tell us ‘who did what to whom and why’ over the coming weeks. I’m also certain that this was an epic failure by the Secret Service and some partner agencies.

Reporters keep asking me what the Secret Service needs to do differently to provide adequate protection to those they are sworn to protect. The answer is simple: They have been doing this for years and they have a ‘playbook’. Go back to the playbook. Do what you’ve always done. Follow your SOPs and contingency plans and training, but don’t be afraid to amend them as new challenges emerge. Exercise your plans regularly. Make sure all the checkboxes in the plan are ticked before the POTUS walks on stage. If there’s a location where you’re afraid a bad guy with a gun can shoot from – put a good guy with a gun there. If something bad happens, follow the playbook and get him/her out of danger, without stopping for a photo-op. Let other agents neutralize the threat.

Over the coming weeks, involved agencies will be forced to paint a more accurate picture of what went wrong. They’ve been pretty quiet so far. Some officials will undoubtedly lose their jobs and conspiracy theories will emerge and flourish every which way. Trump will continue to make hay with the fact that he was ‘wounded in action’.

But the bottom-line that emerges for me, as all the finger-pointing and theories unfold, is this: an innocent person died; a bad-guy died; others were wounded; security failed; and a former US President deserved much better protection.