“It felt off,” mentioned one witness, Tyler McGettigan, who attended the rally and described the dearth of any commonplace safety measures.
“I used to be anticipating to undergo some form of checkpoint, however nothing occurred. I simply walked in.”
Herzog’s safety agency, The Bodyguard Group of Beverly Hills, had additionally beneficial utilizing metallic detectors and handheld wands to display screen for weapons within the crowd.
However none of those precautions had been in place.
“We had actual issues,” mentioned Herzog’s colleague, Mark Wilson, who was additionally on the March rally.
“We knew he was mixing with some unpredictable characters, and it appeared like he wasn’t taking the risk significantly. It is tragic that we’re right here now, speaking about this after what occurred.”
Much more alarmingly, Kirk’s private safety workforce failed to deal with the issues. Though there have been some plainclothes officers within the crowd, solely six officers had been assigned to safe the occasion.
College Police Chief Jeff Lengthy admitted the occasion’s safety measures had been inadequate.
“We educated for these items. You suppose you will have every little thing coated, however when one thing like this occurs, you understand we did not,” Lengthy mentioned throughout a press convention.
“Sadly, right now, we did not have it coated, and due to that, we had this tragic incident.”