SEATTLE — Hours after seeing the video of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, former King County Sheriff John Urquhart said it was "mind-boggling" that the shooter was able to get so close to the stage where Trump spoke in Pennsylvania.
"This is an event where there's all sorts of security. It's really mind-boggling he could come so close to assassinating a former president," Urquhart said.
Urquhart, who is also a KING 5 law enforcement analyst, worked alongside federal agents to help secure political events and appearances during his time as an active officer.
"The security concerns are very important, you can bet the Secret Service was all over that venue for days in advance," he said. "We don't know what went wrong. Nobody is better at executive protection than secret service."
Urquhart said, based on his experience, Secret Service members typically arrives several days in advance of an event to identify security concerns and to plan staging, traffic routes and contingencies for emergencies.
"It's really amazing, the stuff we don't normally see that goes on in the background. It's immense and yet this still happened," he said. "I was just gobsmacked because this doesn't happen very often in our country."
The FBI announced Saturday evening that it has assumed the role of the lead federal law enforcement agency in the investigation.
"Best investigators in the country and now they have a vested in finding out what went wrong because clearly something went wrong," said Urquhart.