SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Questions surround security following a chaotic scene involving an active gunman at President Trump's first White House Correspondents' Dinner as commander in chief.
The Secret Service will now begin an investigative phase of its response, looking deeper into the suspect and a possible motive.
This marks the third time Trump was near an active gunman. The first two incidents occurred outdoors.
ABC 10News spoke with Ray Shay, a former SWAT commander with the San Diego Police Department who has more than two decades of experience, to weigh in on the situation.
"That is, um, one of the most highly protected events, locations," Shay said.
Shay explained what a security detail looks like for an event filled with high-level leaders and journalists.
"It's multi-layers of people protecting you because you have local, state and federal representatives there. You have a lot of pre-screening being done ahead of time. They know every person, every name, every background of every person in that room," Shay said.
The law enforcement detail appeared to have reacted exactly as they were trained to do.
"This has been pre-planned for anywhere that the president might be a, a threat that they can move him out immediately, and they did such that, so people should have confidence that we have the Secret Service and people protecting our president," Shay said.
Shay said an enclosed space is more secure, with multiple layers of protection and perimeters aimed at limiting the risk of violence.
"And that's why they probably transitioned to that exclusively because you got full protection, you got a secure outer perimeter, and it's who they let into that location," Shay said.
"That's the inner perimeter would be as secure as, probably, almost the White House," Shay said.
"And there'll be a lot of people looking at how close this person got, whether that he was within that inner perimeter, and it would be very problematic if he made it that far with a weapon," Shay said.
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