INSIDE THE BALLROOM: How The WHCD Shooting Unfolded

0:00 I want to I want to start from the very top.

0:02 So, let's take this in chronological order.

0:04 Now, people are amazed that I know the word chronological.

0:07 Uh start from when you got to uh the Washington Hilton Hotel.

0:13 Tell me what it was like as you walked in, as you

0:15 moved through the crowd and obviously with a focus on security,

0:19 you know, when was the first time that you encountered security?

0:21 How did that proceed all the way into the ballroom before the incident?

0:26 Right.

0:27 Well, first arrived sort of on premises.

0:29 The the Washington Hilton is a famous location uh famous for the horrible

0:33 thing that that John Hinckley did to Ronald Reagan many years ago.

0:37 Uh but it's a it's one of the few locations in the District of Columbia

0:41 that you can have a an event with 2 to 3,000 people in attendance.

0:46 Uh it might shock people that our nation's capital

0:49 doesn't have big ballroom space like that in ample supply.

0:52 Uh but there you go.

0:53 It was a rainy day, so sort of misty arriving.

0:56 The extended perimeter was on Connecticut Avenue

0:58 and around uh some other parts of the property.

1:01 They had people out there who would ask if you had a ticket and people

1:05 would either flash their phone or flash

1:06 a paper ticket and then they walk past that.

1:08 There was no checking of does this name and ID

1:12 match with a ticket uh or anything like that.

1:15 But it was just at least sort

1:16 of your incidental contact that there was an extended

1:18 perimeter uh that had the protesters at bay on the other side of the street.

1:23 So, you got to go through that little bit, but several of my friends

1:27 were those police were those were those were

1:30 those uniform police or just uh private security there,

1:35 but they seem to be more traffic control.

1:37 There were other people wearing sort of a a poncho to guard against the rain,

1:41 sort of taking a look at things and waving it to to go into the building.

1:45 The building itself wasn't really secured in any visible way.

1:50 Uh you went into sort of the main entrance.

1:52 There's a lot of pregame gatherings that uh some

1:55 of the big media companies were having and others.

1:57 You go to a bar, you go to a room that they had rented

2:00 uh that you you basically went straight

2:01 from the street into those kinds of venues.

2:04 And it wasn't until you took an escalator

2:06 ride down from the main lobby where you met

2:09 with the familiar uh image of magnetometers and people

2:13 checking the contents of your pockets and things like that.

2:16 But even that I found to be less

2:18 than what you would go through at TSA pre-check.

2:21 uh you know, at least there you empty everything and things get x-rayed.

2:25 This you just sort of emptied your pockets and someone looked at it and said,

2:28 "Yep, that's a phone.

2:29 Yep, those are keys.

2:30 Yep, that's your wallet." And off you'd

2:32 go if you didn't set the magnetometer off.

2:34 Uh you know, it probably enough to deter most people most of the time,

2:38 but it wasn't what I would consider to be heavy security.

2:42 And that's the checkpoint that was run eventually by the the PER.

2:47 But you went through that and you went down maybe even another level uh to get

2:51 to the entrance of the ballroom and then you kind of made your way to your seat.

2:55 Uh and that's where you know so for people up and take pictures

2:59 near the front and then go back to our humble seats in the back.

3:03 So the being I I know for a fact you were you were literally

3:08 in the the VIP table at the very front right in front of the podium.

3:12 Um, but let me ask you this for the people

3:15 who haven't been to the Washington Hilton.

3:16 Uh, was there were there more than one set

3:19 of escalators leading down to where the magnetometers were?

3:22 And were were they walkthrough or were they wanding people?

3:26 Uh, and were those individuals running that security point?

3:30 Were they uniform police or did they look

3:33 like private hotel security perhaps or security contractors?

3:38 Yeah.

3:38 So my my recollection is you went down

3:40 at least two levels to get to the ballroom.

3:43 I thought went down a level and you went through the security screening and then

3:46 you went down another level to get down to where the ballroom itself was.

3:51 Somewhere along the way there was a coat check

3:53 that I was not allowed to get my super duper uh

3:55 coat on my way out when I was you know do not pass go get the heck out of here.

4:00 Uh but uh fun times on that part.

4:02 But basically going down I think two levels to get from main entry

4:07 way down to the ballroom and the security checkpoint was in the middle.

4:12 Uh and uh to be honest when I went through I didn't pay too much attention.

4:17 I've gone through a lot of these kinds of events, national conventions,

4:19 other kinds of things and you sort of notice there are some uniformed people.

4:23 Then there's people you don't recognize whether uniform is uh sort

4:26 of the uh commercial security or some some form of police.

4:31 They didn't seem like secret service,

4:33 but there definitely were Secret Service agents present.

4:36 Uh and uh you'd go through the magnetometer.

4:39 If you set it off, you'd get wanded.

4:42 If you didn't set it off, they'd say, "Thank you.

4:44 Get your things." And you kept walking.

4:48 Okay.

4:48 Okay.

4:48 And so then you you finish that and that was

4:50 the last uh point of security prior to entering the ballroom itself.

4:56 Okay.

4:56 Okay.

4:57 And then I mean I look that's a it's fascinating but I think people you know

5:03 understand or or should understand that there's a lot

5:06 of the security happens that you don't see.

5:08 Right.

5:08 So correct, when people talk about, well, it didn't seem like there was much.

5:12 That's because it's, you know, as they say, layered and

5:16 the vast majority of security is not right up in your face at these events.

5:20 There is some and perhaps they'll do a hot

5:23 wash and decide that there should have been more.

5:25 Um, particularly patrolling the the hotel given its size.

5:30 Right.

5:31 So So you got into the ballroom.

5:33 Um, and how long were you in there before the incident kicked off?

5:39 Um, so I remember things kind

5:41 of getting around getting underway around sevenish where

5:44 people where they were opening up the the entryway and having people fill in.

5:49 Uh, you know, when you have overly educated people,

5:51 it takes them a long time to get in and stop talking and find their seats.

5:56 And so you got to got to give the cattle a long time to herd their way.

6:01 Uh, and so I don't think the program was

6:03 getting underway any earlier than like 8:30 or so.

6:06 But I wasn't watching my clock.

6:08 I was trying to say, "Hey, you know,

6:10 I heard there was a dinner here and it's past

6:12 my bedtime and I'd like to have some food." Uh,

6:15 plus I was really anxious to hear what the president had

6:17 to say since I figured he's going to be in his element.

6:19 But I really remember it being in the 8:30

6:22 onward time before things really got settled.

6:24 But we're in the room a good ways before that.

6:27 People are mixing and mingling and get their pictures taken

6:29 and uh settling in and and all all that stuff.

6:33 All that sort of seemed kind of the normal fair.

6:35 It's sort of what gets you into the warm bath.

6:38 You're not you're not thinking security at that point.

6:40 You're not thinking about anything happening.

6:42 That's kind of what was jarring for a lot of normal folks when there

6:46 all of a sudden it is decidedly not what you signed up for that evening.

6:51 Yeah.

6:52 You you raised a very important point

6:53 which is look most people don't walk around

6:56 their daily lives or at activities or events

6:59 and think to themselves well what if?

7:02 Right.

7:02 Right.

7:03 And but as we say all the time in terms of you know operational awareness just

7:09 for for the average citizen you do need to ask

7:13 yourself what if when you go to events like

7:16 this right where or when you walk into the subway

7:19 right or you go to the Super Bowl

7:21 or any big public event and certainly where there

7:25 are senior administration officials and the president and vice president.

7:30 you need to have that that thought process which is difficult

7:34 for people who aren't uh security-minded

7:37 or haven't had experience in that world.

7:40 Uh so it's perfectly understandable and the reaction of most folks at least

7:45 from what you could see uh seemed exactly what you would expect.

7:51 So it happens at what point the the the the shots

7:56 were fired outside the ballroom as an estimate how long

8:02 before the shots were fired and then people started to react

8:06 whether ducking under the tables or looking for an exit.

8:10 Yeah.

8:10 Well, it's impossible for me to say because

8:12 one of the problems with human brains is after

8:15 the fact trying to recreate what you picked

8:18 up in your sensory nodes is almost always inaccurate.

8:22 Uh, and so in in retrospect, there was an unusual sound.

8:27 Everyone seemed to have that kind of a memory.

8:30 But then there was all this other collateral activity that happened

8:33 that I think is what really was causing the reaction.

8:36 And these guys there,

8:37 I would say 20 to 30 of them maybe coming in uh and they're making noise

8:43 and they're telling people to get down and get

8:47 out of the way, which is their job.

8:50 Once a on a gun has gone off, the only thing they're there to do is to protect

8:57 the protectees and get everyone else out of the way.

9:00 So the best way to do that is for all of the chickens to get

9:04 under the table and then they can scoot to where they need to go.

9:07 And so I think a lot of the panic was there's all this commotion.

9:11 There's very well-trained,

9:13 well-armed guys saying get down and they're hearing maybe shots fired.

9:19 And so a lot of people were just flowing

9:22 away almost like a boat going through a lake.

9:25 And you have the layers of the ripples going off to the side.

9:30 And so people either got under their tables

9:32 or they were running sort of aimlessly

9:34 toward another part of the room to get away from where the big guys were,

9:38 which is kind of what instinct does in times like this.

9:42 But I have to say, you know, I I was evacuated out of the White House on 911.

9:46 I've been through a few different security scenarios and you

9:49 you know you still have kind of these natural reactions,

9:52 but I think really what it comes down to, you feel like you're

9:55 in a movie and you don't realize you're a part of the movie until

9:58 it stops and it's just and and that's that's part of whatever the whether

10:04 it's the amydala amydala and fight or flight then and maybe if you

10:07 got muscle memory for training of what to look for of you know

10:10 where are my places of egress but mainly I just I don't like being

10:14 in crowded places for for a lot of reasons and I don't want people

10:17 to crowd my personal space and so it violated both of those for me.

10:21 Hey, thanks for tuning in.

10:22 If you enjoyed this video,

10:24 don't forget to hit that like button and leave a comment.

10:27 A really positive, nice, and kind comment.

10:29 That would be appreciated.

10:30 And if you're not already subscribed to our channel,

10:33 make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications

10:35 so you don't miss any of our daily updates.