By David King
Nearly three weeks have passed since the assassination attempt against former President Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, and there are many questions left unanswered. The Secret Service appears to be in CYA mode (Cover Your A**). So I decided to get a viewpoint from a former Secret Service agent who has little at stake to speak his observation of what went down. Keep in mind, the brotherhood of the Secret Service is strong, and even retired, there exists a high level of pride and loyalty.
Eric Enos, Concord, was a former Secret Service agent for 11 years. Some readers may recall his column “Tales of the Secret Service” in the Diablo Gazette from 2016 through 2018.
In his initial article to Diablo Gazette in July 2016, he writes, “It is protection that most people think of when they think of the Secret Service. For me it was by far the most interesting and unique aspect of the job and the sole reason I became a Special Agent with the Secret Service. Protection operations are extremely detailed, time consuming, and often require days and even weeks away from home.”
After the shooting incident of former President Trump, traditional and social media outlets were offering conflicting versions of the incident. Will we ever know the whole story? I asked Enos for his assessment of the event from the perspective of his experience and training. We spoke for hours, and this is a summation of that discussion.
“I saw it on TV like everybody else. I’m just speaking from my time at the service and my training and knowledge. My first observation was that I was really impressed that the agents performed exactly the way we were trained once shots were fired. Trump goes to the ground and the agents immediately form a human shield on top of him with their bodies. I was extremely impressed with that and the speed with which it took place. The first two agents got there probably before he even made it all the way to the ground. That was exactly how we were trained.
Once they made the decision to evacuate, their job was to do just that, shield and evacuate, not fight. You have other assets that are there to eliminate the threats. In addition to the counter snipers, you have agents posted all around the stage and throughout the event, as well as other local and state law enforcement.
But the evacuation was where I saw the first breakdown of the way we train. There was a call that came out, “shooter down.” Well, that’s one shooter. You don’t know what other danger is out there. There could be multiple shooters. But once they heard that call, they decided to evacuate to an armored suburban which should have happened immediately and swiftly. Several times, Trump’s head was exposed while pumping his fist multiple times. That should never have happened!
Protectees should never be exposed like that. Agents are trained to push the head down and keep it down and get him out of there shielding him with their bodies the entire way. Protectees are also informed of those response tactics and instructed on what to do in such an emergency.
Was protocol not followed as far as the setup? I seriously doubt it. The largest part of work and effort that goes into a site like this, a rally, is not on the day of the event. It’s all the advanced work that took place days before the event: all the determination of what assets will be needed, where they’re going to be needed, where are areas of opportunity for a would-be assailant or assassin. Whether it be a physical attack with a knife rushing the stage or a shooter. All that is mitigated with the advance work. I heard they had five up to eight days for this rally, which is ample time to do the advance work correctly. Many times, during a campaign, you may only have two days to do an advance.
Generally speaking, there is a coordination of three circles of protection around the protectee. The inner circle is primarily comprised of Secret Service agents, shift agents who remain with Trump, and post standers in and around the crowd and surrounding areas.
The second ring of security is going to be comprised of agents and local law enforcement. The outer ring Is primarily local and state police posted out on the fringes of the area.
We have meetings with our agents and law enforcement at the end of every day to discuss every site and every element of the visit and to see what changes have taken place.
This is all standard for any site. Part of that advanced work is, of course, the counter sniper team. Their advance work identifies all the areas of potential opportunity for a would-be sniper, high ground, line-of-sight to the podium and to where the protectee is going to be. Everything is put on a map and on a grid.
You do not have to have a person posted on every rooftop, but you have assets on the ground making sure nobody is accessing a rooftop. So how that breakdown happened, I don’t know. We won’t know, I guess, officially until the FBI investigation is finished.”
“Once he’s spotted on the roof. What should have happened at that point?”
“Well, the breakdown began with him even being up there. Event goers and people outside of the main event observed a suspicious person with a range finder and gave a description to local law enforcement. Under normal communication, they are trained to pass that information on to the Secret Service command post.
The Secret Service Command post is comprised of a representative from every law enforcement entity that is part of that visit. Local police, state police, sheriffs, any military assets that may be there, as well as a fire marshal or representative for the fire department, ambulance, etcetera. Everybody that’s assigned to a protective level has a representative in that command post operating on different communication frequencies, and it all comes together in the command post.
So, it’s safe to assume that the Secret Service knew there was a “person of suspicion” because of this range finder. The vast majority of Secret Service events and rallies will have persons identified as possibly suspicious until it’s been investigated and identified.
They get a call that there’s a suspicious person in a certain area. They respond to that area and attempt to identify the person. And then they will question the person or take whatever action is deemed necessary to either confirm or debunk the suspicion. Mind you, that would not have the Secret Service prevent Trump from taking the stage. It was suspicious person, not an identified threat — that’s an enormous difference in terminology.
Now, the counter sniper teams have eyes on all those areas and you have a person on a low-level rooftop with an unobstructed line of sight to the podium and the protectee. That was definitely a failure somewhere. There is no logical or acceptable explanation for that.
It is my understanding that the threat was not identified until the shooter began firing. They should have been able to see him crawling up the rooftop. That is unacceptable. That was another failure or breakdown.
I was never involved in a situation where we had an actual attack, and most agents aren’t. That is the point of all the advance work, communication systems and working with other law enforcement agencies, to gather as much intelligence as possible. That’s why this is such a rare event.”
“Do you think it was the right move that the head of the department should resign?“
“Ultimately, yes, because of the way it was handled afterwards. Why the Service didn’t get in front of this immediately is concerning. There was a press conference that evening and the Secret Service was not present there. That silence from the Secret Service was deafening.
It took her to testify before Congress nine days later to start trying to get some answers, but her answers were vague.
Every site is unique, but all are fundamentally planned this way. There’s just not going to be a logical or an acceptable excuse for what happened.”
While Enos was never involved in an actual attack, in his column published November 2016, he recalls an incident in a Bush-Cheney rally in Fresno where agents spotted a person in a trench coat behaving suspiciously among an excited crowd of 8,000. How that ended may surprise you. I have reposted that article on the website. “Assassination Attempt or Just Trying to Impress a Girlfriend”. You will find it interesting reading.