In the hours after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, speculation immediately began regarding perceived negligence on the part of the United States Secret Service for allowing the shooter to nearly kill the former president.
Former Secret Service Agent Ken Valentine spoke to 1819 News hours after the shooting, giving his perspective on the Secret Service’s actions before, during and after, albeit with still limited information.
Valentine served in the Secret Service for 24 years, working protection details for former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
The shooting occurred while Trump was speaking on stage. After a series of shots rang out, Trump grasped his face and dropped to the floor before swiftly being dogpiled by his protective detail. Information from the Secret Service says the suspected shooter was killed by law enforcement, but not before killing at least one person in the audience and seriously wounding two more. Video from the event shows the alleged shooter on a rooftop less than 200 yards from Trump’s podium.
In a late-evening press conference, investigators gave an update on the shooting. Notably, the FBI and Pennsylvania State Police were present without the Secret Service.
Social media speculations ran wild after the attempt, with many criticizing the Secret Service for allowing the shooter to get into position, failing to neutralize him before shooting Trump and other sundry critiques of perceived failure on their part.
According to Valentine, the Secret Service is not always permitted to fully control access to private property, even during an event like Saturday. Although the Secret Service receives advanced notice of any venue, allowing them to ensure proper security, some areas, including rooftops, cannot always be fully closed down.
“We set up a perimeter, and then, outside that perimeter, you’re going to have vantages of threat. Given an appropriate amount of time, you scope all that out, and you find those vantage points of, if you were the bad guy, where would you do this from?" he outlined. "You try to secure buildings that would give a shooter a vantage point. And so, to the extent that you can, legally and with collaboration and cooperation, you attempt to secure a building and make sure it’s either locked down and vacant or that the avenues to a vantage point are cut off, either through the use of a local police officer or a secret service agent.”
“I don’t want to use a strong word like failure,” Valentine continued. “But, at the end of the day, the former president was shot, and you can’t avoid that fact. He was bleeding, we know that. He said that himself. So, he’s been shot. But, in talking about it, what was the failure? Where was the failure? I think that’s the question, and that’s what the investigation has to bear out. This shooter may have had perfectly legitimate access to the rooftops. There are certain buildings and venues where we would like for people to not access rooftops, but perhaps legally we can’t preclude it. It’s not an excuse, but if that’s what the investigation bears out, it really cuts down on the time they would have to react.”
Several purported witnesses to the shooting claim they saw the suspect crawling across the roof and tried to alert law enforcement in the area to his presence. The eyewitness testimony led some online to point towards negligence on the part of the Secret Service, and others even suggested they were complicit in the assassination attempt.
“What I understand is the eyewitness accounts are saying the shots happened in rapid succession,” Valentine said. “If that’s the case, then what it sounds like to me is that the counter snipers had the target acquired as he was taking those shots, so they were able to take the shot as he started to shoot. I would much prefer that they had taken that shot just a little quicker. What prevented them from doing that is my question. There are certainly some very legitimate reasons why they couldn’t or didn’t take that shot one second sooner, but the investigation has to bear that out. So until that time, to say, ‘Oh, you just failed to shoot,’ I think that’s awfully strong, and I don’t want to put that on them until we know.
He continued, “They may not have had a clear shot.[the shooter] could have picked up a rifle that was not seeable because of a ledge or something and just started firing and got fortunate. But, certainly, if what the investigation bears out is that this guy picked up a rifle, took 20 seconds to zero in, he took his time, he got his best shot off and grazed the former president: if that’s what bears out, then we have a real failure. A failure to identify the target quickly and a failure to act fast enough. But, those details are so critical, and to come out and say that ‘we have a failure,’ that’s easy to say, but I would much rather wait for some details to show exactly what went down and then we’ll have a much clearer vision of what happened.”
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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