The Latest Assassination Attempt and the Inevitable Questions That Follow

This article first appeared in New English Review.

In the wake of the latest attempt to assassinate President Trump, some of the talking points

and second-guessing revolve around the Secret Service, one of whose members took a shot to

the chest in the process. (He was saved by his protective vest.) Some of the talking points

depend on what side of the political fence one sits. Were the proper protocols followed?

Would there have been more agents present if not for the shutdown of DHS funding led by the

Democrats? How did the accused shooter get into the hotel with the weapons, etc.? Far be it

from me to second-guess the Secret Service and how they go about their job. I would like to

address a couple of points, however.

Over the years, as a DEA agent, I had a few occasions to work with the Secret Service, and I

made several friendships with their agents. When I was stationed in Milan, Italy, in the 1980s,

they had a team of agents assigned to Milan investigating the trafficking of counterfeit US

currency, which, aside from protection, is also their responsibility.

This latest attempted assassination at the Washington Hilton reminded me of a time in 1997,

after I retired two years previously, when I went with a DEA International Training team to

Moscow. My last post of duty was in DEA International Training in Quantico, Virginia, and after

retiring, I had done a few contract teaching gigs with the International Training section. This

was just such an occasion.

We were lodged at the Marriott Hotel in Moscow, and while we were there, a Secret Service

team came to town in preparation for a visit by then-Vice President Al Gore the following week.

(I should note here that a Secret Service advance team had most certainly performed an

extensive advance trip much prior to this in order to arrange every detail of the visit.)

This team was staying at the Marriott, as would be the vice president. One afternoon, we found

ourselves on the elevator with one of their agents. She asked us if we were carrying firearms

and if we would still be in Moscow the coming week, and we replied to both in the negative.

She then said that was good because if we were, she would have had to have our rooms

changed to a different floor because we were on the same floor the vice president would be

staying in.

I bring this up because questions are being raised about how the accused gunman was able to

check into the Washington Hilton the day before with a long gun, a pistol, and several knives.

It’s a valid question, and I am not the one to answer it because presidential protection was not

part of my duties in the DEA.

I will say this, however, on behalf of the Secret Service, an organization I always respected and

still do. When such an incident occurs, whether it be DEA, Secret Service, FBI, or any other

federal law enforcement agency, what we refer to as “critical incidents”, involving a shooting or

other form of assault involving agent personnel, the agency concerned conducts an extensive

investigation. For example, if an agent has to fire his or her firearm, that incident must be

investigated by the agency involved. A critical incident review is necessary to determine if

agency personnel acted legally and or properly during the incident.

There is another reason for such a review. If mistakes were made, it is vital to identify and

correct those mistakes, not for the sake of pointing fingers of blame at an agent, but to prevent

such a mistake from happening again. While assigned to DEA’s Office of Training from 1990-

1995, critical incident review reports were not just of interest to the field office involved but

also were necessary for training purposes. For example, many of the main teaching points in

undercover training were learned from cases where our agents were wounded, even worse,

killed while working undercover.

In the case of DEA, if an agent were injured or killed during the execution of a search warrant,

working undercover, or making an arrest, is there a teaching point from that incident that

should be incorporated into our agent training?

I am not going to sit in my armchair and say that something could have been done better or

that the DHS funding issue was a factor. I don’t know. At the end of the day, the Secret Service

did their job and prevented anyone from getting injured or killed, save for the minor injury to

the agent who stopped a bullet with his vest. We can rest assured that the Secret Service will

analyze this incident down to the tiniest detail, and if corrections are warranted, they will be

made. In the meantime, we should be thankful to the men and women in the Secret Service

who protect our president, whoever he or she may be.