A former U.S. Secret Service agent who at one point was assigned to the Presidential Protection Division during President Trump’s first term analyzed how agents responded to a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ dinner Saturday. “There’s a lot that’s kind of happening in a matte r of seconds in that video,” Michael de Geus said, referring to the surveillance video released. “Having done it, it’s not the easiest job in the world.” As a former U.S. Secret Service agent himself, de Geus understands the security planning involved in preparing for big events involving the president. “Security and protection for events like this, there’s kind of like a methodology that boils down to really three concentric circles, so it’s kind of an outer perimeter, a middle perimeter, and an inner perimeter,” de Geus said. De Geus said that while the suspect was able to breach the outer perimeter by rushing past the metal detector, the security methodology proved successful because it kept him from reaching the ballroom and hurting anyone. “While the uniform division secret service officer did get shot, he is alive, he is OK, and that’s why they wear the armor that they wear,” de Geus said. “No different than a police officer does that with the street every day.” He said the agents worked well, given the limitations they likely had at the location where the event was taking place. “When you’re inside like that at a hotel, there are certain things you can do and have to do, and then, there are certain things that you want to do that you’re going to try to get. I don’t want to give a law class right now, but trying to get access to that hotel room to search every room and identify every person within it. You start violating the Fourth Amendment and it gets into a whole weird thing that, rightfully so, is there. That’s why the service doesn’t go in and start drilling into all that stuff,” de Geus said. That’s why he credits them for accomplishing the mission. “They did the job. The shooter showed up. The shooter shot. He got put down. The President and First Lady extracted off. Nobody in that room was harmed,” de Geus said. De Geus said that while Allen sent a note to family letting them know what he was going to do minutes before, there was not enough time for agents to act in response.   He credits them for a quick response at the hotel that he said saved lives. “Had they not done their job right, we could have had a much different conversation about how bad that was,” de Geus said. De Geus said there’s always something that can be learned. In this case, he said the Secret Service could re-evaluate how they could possibly control ingress through the metal detectors differently. ...read more read less