NEW LONDON, Conn. — Anxieties have swelled in the days following Saturday’s attempted assassination in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service is facing heavy criticism after what happened at the July 13 political rally for Donald Trump.
The former president was wounded after being shot in the upper ear. One spectator was killed in the shooting, with two others injured.
Kendell Coker, a professor of psychology at Connecticut College said traumatic incidents like these can lead to prolonged feelings of fear.
Coker said, “This ever-present reality that this could happen to anybody, including the U.S. president or former U.S. president.”
Despite the violent and deadly series of events, President Joe Biden said he remains confident in the Secret Service.
Others, including U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, aren’t feeling as much at ease.
“I think it’s pretty clear someone getting that close to the event, where we’ve all seen now that there were actually eyewitnesses who were trying to alert law enforcement about the fact that this guy was acting more than suspiciously and like the president said there’s a need for an independent investigation into the way the Secret Service handled this,” said Courtney.
Mark Lowery, former Secret Service agent, agreed that the criticism is warranted, laying out how the Secret Service typically secures an area for an event of that caliber.
“A counter sniper team comes in and does a pre-advance, they'll sit down and identify the high ground areas that are concerned identify the long range, so somebody that's several yards down range from the podium, they'll know where the podium is going to be where the president's route is going to go in from, so they identify those on a survey,” explained Lowery.
“There should have been no one having access to that roof, that could do what this person did. Having said that, I’m going to refrain from saying exactly what could have been done differently until the transparent and competent investigation is completed,” he continued.
Biden has directed an independent review of the security at the rally. There is currently no word on when that might be completed. He has also ordered Robert F Kennedy Jr., Independent presidential candidate, to receive secret service protection after what transpired in Butler County, Pa.
MORE NEWS:
---
Have a story idea or something on your mind you want to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at newstips@fox61.com.
HERE ARE MORE WAYS TO GET FOX61 NEWS
Download the FOX61 News APP
iTunes: Click here to download
Google Play: Click here to download
Stream Live on ROKU: Add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching FOX61.
Steam Live on FIRE TV: Search ‘FOX61’ and click ‘Get’ to download.