Secret Service Secret Marksmanship

December 22, 2024 by Mike McDaniel

Until the House Task Force on the assassination attempts on Donald Trump released its report—available here--much was unknown and unknowable. Due to concealment by the Secret Service (SS) and other agencies much still is, however at least one issue regarding the second attempt has been clarified: some of the actions of the SS agent who confronted the assassin. Wokespy provides this:

However, Trump moved up his anticipated arrival by one hour and arrived at 11 a.m. However, the suspected assassin was not detected until 1:30 p.m., although he had taken position since 1:59 a.m., before the request was even made.

The agent who noticed the suspected shooter was five feet away when he noticed the barrel of a gun. He fired six shots and struck naught. However, the Secret Service has yet to confirm the actual number of shots fired, another embarrassing failure by the elite security service to account for ammunition spent.

Consider this from the House report:

Graphic: House Task Force, Public Domain

The report is full of redactions of agent’s names and other information.

The agent fired at least six shots from five feet. Note the actual number of those shots and presumably where they ended up remains unknown “pending an ongoing FBI investigation.” Sadly, police marksmanship in general is abysmal. It’s not uncommon for police officers, in attempting to lawfully shoot bad guys, to ventilate bystanders, homes, businesses and vehicles. Most cops aren’t gun guys and girls, and fire their weapons only when required for annual qualification. Most clean their handguns even less often. Passing grades are commonly 70%--they can miss 30% of their shots—and they can shoot the course as many times as necessary to barely pass.

For example, in 1990 New York PD officer hit percentage was only 19%. They missed 81% of rounds fired. At less than three yards they hit only 38%, and between 3-7 yards, only 9.4%. From 1994-2000 the NYPD’s hit rate was still frightening. From 0-2 yards, their hit rate was 69%, which sounds encouraging until one realizes at zero feet, their muzzles were touching the attacker and they still missed 31% of the time! From 16-25 yards their hit rate was only 2%.

This problem isn’t limited to New York City. From 1988-1994 the Metro Dade PD fired 1300 rounds, missing more than 1,100 times, a hit rate of only about 15.4%. In another case, Los Angeles PD offers fired 103 rounds at two women delivering newspapers. Fortunately, their accuracy was as poor as their judgment. They only wounded the women, but hit seven homes and nine parked cars. A more in-depth article on this issue may be found here.

One would expect Secret Service agents to be better—far better—than the average patrol officer. They work constantly in crowds, so presumably their handgun skills must be better to save their protectees and avoid killing innocents. One would expect their training to focus on those scenarios and require split second decision making and absolute accuracy. One would surely expect agents on a presidential detail, the most coveted assignment in the SS, to be outstanding shots. Trump was only a former president, so perhaps competence was optional? One would further expect agents not able to consistently demonstrate those kinds of mental and shooting skills to be retrained until they can perform. One would apparently expect wrongly.

The hapless agent’s shooting is actually worse than it seems. It’s reasonable to believe the five-foot distance was measured from the agent’s body to the assassin’s body. But if so, this fails to account for the extension of the agent’s handgun. The muzzle of his weapon would have been about two feet closer to the assassin, so the muzzle-to-assassin distance would be only about three feet.

Graphic: Author

These targets were photographed at five feet (L) and three feet (R) respectively. Obviously, the camera lens “sees” things a bit differently than the human eye, but note at three feet the target appears nearly twice the size of the target at five feet, and the agent missed with all six—or more—shots.

Not only that, the assassin abandoned his rifle and gear and ran away. All the agent had to do to pursue and capture him was vault a low chain link fence, but for whatever reason, he—or she?—didn’t. This too remains unexplained. Was the agent physically incapable of that task? It’s a potential DEI issue I explored earlier this year in The sleepy Secret Service.

Am I being too hard on the unidentified agent? Only if the Secret Service expects them to be no better than the least experienced and capable cop on the beat. That answer also remains unavailable.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.