Former members of the task force formed after the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump said they were struck by what they described as routine security mistakes at the Charlie Kirk event where the conservative activist was fatally shot Wednesday at Utah Valley University.
Kirk, 31, was killed during the rally and a 22-year-old Utah resident, Tyler Robinson, is in custody, authorities said. Turning Point USA, the political action committee Kirk founded, employed a private security firm and coordinated with the university police, but several veteran protection specialists told reporters that basic protective steps were missing in the lead-up to the event.
Jeffrey James, a 22-year veteran of the Secret Service who served as a senior adviser to the task force that investigated the Trump shooting attempt, said advance venue work is the first line of defense and that it appeared to be insufficient in this case. "From that position, I would build the security outwards," James said, describing how he would stand where a principal would speak, take in sightlines and vulnerabilities, and then plan protective layers around that vantage.
Bill Gage, who previously worked on presidential details for George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said advanced reconnaissance and establishing buffers between a principal and a crowd are key. "It's really all about the advanced work — that's where you keep the clients safe," he said, noting the frequent tension between event staff who want visibility and the protection teams that seek controlled separation.
Several experts interviewed said routine measures were lacking at the Utah campus event. Witnesses and students who attended the rally — which reportedly drew about 3,000 people — said there were no metal detectors, no bag checks and that tickets were not consistently checked before entry. Those gaps, they said, left the event effectively open to anyone who wished to attend.
Former Secret Service special agent Donald Lane emphasized the role of "protective intelligence," urging vetting of online threats and other pre-event threat assessments to determine whether specific individuals pose a credible danger. "You vet the internet, email traffic, and do some intelligence-gathering to answer questions like: Are there any people that are out to get this particular individual?" Lane said.
Chris Swecker, a 24-year FBI veteran, said campus police are often outmatched by the scale and nature of large political events. "It's striking how under-manned the campus police departments are, and frankly, they're just not equipped to handle this type of event," Swecker said. He noted that the university reported coordinating with Kirk’s lead security officer and that the campus deployed a small number of officers; Swecker said that was far fewer than would be used for comparable high-profile protection.
The experts also criticized the placement of Kirk during the rally. They said he was positioned in a low, open area surrounded by buildings — a setup that presidential-level protection teams would typically mitigate by clearing nearby structures and positioning overwatch on rooftops. Instead, the suspected shooter was able to occupy a flat rooftop roughly 150 to 200 yards from the stage, according to the experts’ reconstruction of the scene.
Those conditions, the specialists said, increase vulnerability to ranged attacks and make lone-actor scenarios harder to detect and disrupt. "Outdoor events were the ones that gave me sleepless nights," James said, describing the range of threats protection teams must consider at open-air venues, from drones to possible coordinated attacks.
The cost and scale of protection for high-profile figures vary widely. Experts pointed to examples such as Mark Zuckerberg’s reported $27 million protection bill and media reports that Kim Kardashian spends about $1 million a month on security to illustrate how resource-intensive comprehensive protective programs can be. They said Turning Point USA, which the experts noted is a well-funded organization, does not have the same access to government-level protection or the sustained resources required to replicate a presidential-style security apparatus.
Still, the specialists argued that even modest steps — advance site visits by security officers, coordinated threat assessments, screening checkpoints and stricter control of nearby buildings — can materially reduce risk. Jeffrey James recalled turning down a foreign trip for a president in 2003 when promised crowd screening failed to materialize, a memory he said illustrates the role of advance inspections and the willingness to postpone or alter events when conditions are unsafe.
Swecker said there is a tension on college campuses between steering clear of creating a heavily militarized atmosphere and providing sufficient protection. "Colleges and universities don't have the mindset, don't have the appetite, to make it look like it's a youth armed camp, so you're not going to see a lot of visible security at these types of events on college campuses," he said.
The experts said the fatal shooting at Utah Valley University will prompt renewed scrutiny of how private security and campus police coordinate for political events and could drive new protocols. James and others said they expect organizers to reevaluate outdoor events and consider moving more appearances indoors or tightening entrance controls.
University and Turning Point USA officials have said they coordinated on security and that the lead security officer for Kirk worked with campus police. Law enforcement officials continue to investigate the attack and the motives of the suspect, and the case remains under active inquiry.