When an armed attacker invaded the hotel last Saturday and got off a shotgun blast as President Donald Trump and his top leadership were attending the White House Correspondent’s Association dinner, Tim McCarthy harkened back 45 years to the day he was on President Ronald Reagan’s Secret Service detail at that same hotel.
On that fateful 1981 day as Reagan was being escorted out the back entrance, he was wounded by assassin John Hinckley Jr. McCarthy was also wounded in the attack.
Last Saturday night it was 31-year old Cole Allen at the trigger, according to prosecutors. Allen is facing assassination attempt charges after an incident that created chaos in front of more than 2,000 people. Gunshots prompted the emergency evacuation of Trump, the vice president and top cabinet officials from the White House Correspondent’s dinner.
One floor up, authorities say Allen, a guest at the hotel, had fired a shotgun as he tried to breach a Secret Service checkpoint.
“There is no foolproof security,” said former Secret Service agent and Chicagoan McCarthy. “I think we all know that. But you want to bring the odds down in your favor. And on this occasion, I think the Secret Service is going to be well exonerated for their actions. Quickly responding when there was, when someone went through the most outer perimeter, took him to the ground.”
The scene last Saturday was all too familiar to former Orland Park police chief Tim McCarthy, who in 1981 was a Secret Service agent on the presidential detail, when he was wounded during the attack that also left Reagan wounded at the same hotel.
“Listen, on March 30th, 1981, in spite of the fact that, that I was shot. That was not a success either,” McCarthy recalled. “When a president is shot, that’s not a successful story. Things changed after that with metal detectors, counter-assault teams.”
McCarthy, who now owns the Chicago area Sentinel Security firm, has been critical of some recent Secret Service operations, including when candidate Trump was shot in the ear in Butler, Pennsylvania. But this time he says while the threat may have been concerning, the incident wasn’t a close call.
“He never got down to the level to even come close to the president. But it’s of concern, absolutely,” said McCarthy. “Can’t minimize it, got to break it down and take a look at where every post standard was at, take a Look at the advanced and what everything the advanced team do, and you always got to do better.”
And what about the fact that authorities say Cole Allen was able to take a train from Los Angeles through Chicago to Washington while carrying guns and ammo?
“Well, it’s a loophole for sure,” said McCarthy. “But he could have just as easily put them in a car. In all likelihood, even if you stopped for traffic, if they were in the trunk of the car, there’d be no reason to search the trunk of the cars simply for a traffic stop. So it’s bit of a loophole when it comes to public transportation.”
Now Cole Allen is facing assassination attempt charges using the weapons he brought on a train through Chicago. An AMTRAK official says the rail line is providing information to Secret Service and the FBI, but didn’t answer our questions about Allen’s ability to travel with guns, knives and ammo.
As for the Washington Hilton hotel, after President Reagan was shot in 1981 behind the building, the hotel built a secured indoor garage for future presidents. Saturday night Trump was whisked away to safety from that garage.
