Former U.S. Navy SEAL Erik Prince, who later founded the for-profit military firm Blackwater, now known as Academi, wrote about the security lapses that occurred when a shooter shot former President Donald Trump during a Pennsylvania campaign event on Saturday.
“DJT was not saved by USSS (United States Secret Service) brilliance,” he said. “The fact that USSS allowed a rifle-armed shooter within 150 yards to a preplanned event is either malice or massive incompetence. Clearly there was adequate uncontrolled dead space for a shooter to move into position and take multiple aimed shots. Watching the newsreel one can hear how proximate the shooter is by the very short time lapse between the crack of arriving bullet (supersonic) to the boom of muzzle blast (sonic).” Prince wrote as part of a lengthy post on X.
Prince’s post was made after 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on the former president from a rooftop nearby, striking him in the ear, killing at least one protester, gravely wounding two more, and forcing law authorities to neutralize him.
He stated that he thought security had a “no ‘first shot’ policy” based on how counter-snipers initially responded to the gunfire.
According to Prince, the lone heroic deed committed by the Secret Service was when one of their sharpshooters is claimed to have fired the shot that killed the gunman from about 500 yards away.
According to Prince, there must be a significant change in the approaches taken to run law enforcement agencies and departments to prevent such a debacle from happening again.
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