Retired Secret Service agent gives perspective after Trump assassination attempt

A man who used to run the Dayton Secret Service Office has perspective on how security at events like former President Donald Trump’s rally works.

The security at Saturday’s rally included law enforcement officers from federal, state, and local agencies.

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Because Trump is a Secret Service protectee, that agency would have taken the lead on security at the event.

News Center 7 spoke to Todd Bagby, who spent years working for the U.S. Secret Service out of the federal building in downtown Dayton. He spent 27 years as a special agent and was the resident agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Dayton Office when he retired in 2018.

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He’s now an investigator for the Secret Service in their Cincinnati field office.

He could not talk specifics about what happened at Saturday’s rally, but Bagby says how federal, state, and local law enforcement on-site working security communicate potential threats at events like it is something that’s organized before the event happens.

“That’s part of the advanced plan is how we react to different situations. Whether it’s an explosive device that we always have EOD teams on site (for), for the situation like what occurred before. Typically we’ll have our counter-sniper teams, our counter-assault teams, our counter-surveillance unit. So we have many, many assets,” Bagby said.

Speaking at the White House Sunday afternoon, President Biden said he has ordered an independent review of the events and security at Saturday’s rally to find out what went wrong and said the results of that review will be made public.