Just 2 Seconds (82 page)

1369.
Date: March 5, 1983
Target: Queen Elizabeth II
Location: Yosemite National Park, California
Details: A Mariposa County Sheriff's vehicle scouting Queen Elizabeth's motorcade route rounded a curve in the Yosemite National Park foothills, crossed the centerline and collided head-on with a Secret Service car, killing three Secret Service agents. The collision occurred at 10:50 a.m., about 25 minutes ahead of the queen's motorcade.

1370.
Date: June 2, 1988
Target: U.S. Ambassador John Kelly
Location: Beirut, Lebanon
Details: Kelly's limousine was hit by gunfire when bodyguards fired in the air to clear traffic for his motorcade. A nearby patrol of militiamen thought they were under fire and shot back, striking Kelly's car. No injuries were reported.

1371.
Date: October 31, 1990
Target: President Patricio Aylwin
Location: Santiago, Chile
Details: A bodyguard for Aylwin was accidentally shot in the back and killed by another presidential bodyguard, while he was getting out of his car.

1372.
Date: January 4, 1991
Target: President Robert Mugabe
Location: Harare, Zimbabwe
Details: A presidential bodyguard accidentally fired his shotgun through the roof of Mugabe's jet. He didn't report it, but the hole was discovered during a preflight test.

1373.
Date: August 31, 1994
Target: PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat
Location: Gaza City, Gaza Strip
Details: Arafat jailed 27 of his bodyguards after they fired their weapons in the air to celebrate the wedding of a police captain. Arafat thought he was under attack.

1374.
Date: November 7, 1994
Target: President Bill Clinton
Location: Mundy Township, Michigan
Details: A tractor-trailer slammed into freeway traffic that was stopped for Clinton's motorcade, causing a fiery, chain-reaction collision. Two women and an infant were killed.

1375.
Date: November 26, 1995
Target: Parliament Member Sergei Markidonov
Location: Chita, Russia
Details: Markidonov was shot in the head and killed by his bodyguard in their hotel room. The two had been drinking heavily. The bodyguard then shot himself, but survived. Markidonov was the fourth Russian lawmaker killed in one way or another in less than two years.

1376.
Date: June 17, 1997
Target: First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh
Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Details: A feud between Ranariddh and Second Prime Minister Hun Sen reportedly erupted into a two-hour gun battle between their bodyguards. At least two of Ranariddh's men were killed. One rocket landed in the courtyard of the U.S. Ambassador's residence. Both sides claimed the other was attempting an assassination. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright canceled a two-day trip there due to security concerns.

1377.
Date: July 25, 1997
Target: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Details: One of Albright's security agents reportedly shot himself in the foot while checking his gun in his hotel room. Albright was attending a conference of Southeast Asian nations. The agent was treated at a local hospital and released the next day.

1378.
Date: September 29, 1997
Target: U.S. Ambassador Edward Walker
Location: Hurghada, Egypt
Details: Three bodyguards for Walker reportedly left a suitcase with handguns at a restaurant. The embassy sent a driver to collect the weapons.

1379.
Date: January 1, 1998
Target: Party Chairman Sheikh Shamseddine
Location: Beirut, Lebanon
Details: Shamseddine was praying at a mosque when his bodyguard said he spotted suspicious activity in the surrounding woods. According to the bodyguard's story, someone opened fire, wounding him, and he retaliated. Police found 30 casings from the bodyguard's gun, but no other evidence. Police concluded that the bodyguard had imagined the whole incident and that his wound probably came from one of his own bullets that ricocheted.

1380.
Date: May 4, 1998
Target: Pope John Paul II
Location: Vatican City, Italy
Details: A member of the elite Swiss Guards shot and killed his commander, his commander's wife, and then himself. The killings occurred a few hundred yards from the Pope's apartment. The killings recalled a similar incident in 1959, when a Guard member shot and wounded his commander, and tried to kill himself. (The Swiss Guards have protected popes since 1506.)

1381.
Date: August 26, 1999
Target: Prime Minister Ehud Barak
Location: Galilee, Israel
Details: A resident of a Galilee village where Barak was on holiday drew gunfire from bodyguards after refusing on principle to stop his car at a security roadblock. Bullets blew out the tires of his car in which his two young daughters also were traveling. The driver said he was fed up with the tight security in place for Barak's three-day vacation. Barak's office in Jerusalem issued a statement expressing regret over the incident and relief that it ended without injuries.

1382.
Date: November 22, 1999
Target: Qahtan al-Ahmar (son of Parliament Speaker)
Location: Sanaa, Yemen
Details: Yemeni security forces shot and wounded a bodyguard escorting the son of a top official. The clash broke out at an airport after al-Ahmar refused to hand over his weapons and those of his bodyguards before entering the terminal. Al-Ahmar was arrested after the one-hour gun battle, in which the airport's tower was hit by at least one bullet.

1383.
Date: December 27, 1999
Target: Singer Sean "Puffy" Combs
Location: Manhattan, New York
Details: Combs and his entourage, including actress/singer Jennifer Lopez, began to argue with patrons in a nightclub. Combs and another man reportedly pulled out guns and Barrow began firing, shooting three people. They fled the scene and were chased by police for several blocks before being caught. Police found a stolen 9mm handgun in the car. They arrested Combs and the other man, as well as Combs' driver. A bodyguard was arrested for possession of a weapon and marijuana. Combs was later acquitted.

1384.
Date: June 12, 2001
Target: Queen Elizabeth II
Location: London, England
Details: An inquiry was launched after a police guard accidentally fired his Glock 9mm pistol inside Buckingham Palace. He was inside a designated loading area of the palace, and no one was injured. Previously, a guard traveling with the queen on her train accidentally fired two shots just yards from where the monarch and her husband were sleeping. No one was injured.

1385.
Date: July 26, 2001
Target: Prince William
Location: London, England
Details: Scuffling with a photographer, a bodyguard's Glock 9mm pistol accidentally fell onto the pavement in front of William. The weapon did not fire and other bodyguards hustled William away.

1386.
March 18, 2004
Target: Governor Jose Murat
Location: Oaxaca City, Mexico
Details: It was originally reported that six to eight assailants attacked Murat while driving in his car. Subsequent investigation revealed three bullet holes in the windshield of Murat's car came from shots fired by his chief bodyguard from inside the car. It also appeared the shell casings outside the car also came from the chief bodyguard's weapon. Investigators later announced Murat had staged the "attack," and his bodyguards were arrested for lying to investigators.

1387.
Date: July 8, 2004
Target: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Location: Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Details: An elderly man died after being run over by a police motorcycle accompanying Silva's three-car motorcade.

1388.
Date: November 30, 2004
Target: President Boris Tadic
Location: Belgrade, Serbia
Details: Tadic's motorcade was traveling through traffic when a car repeatedly tried to hit his motorcade. First reported as an assassination attempt in the media, the incident was later found to be an off-duty security guard from the U.S. Embassy, who became irritated at the manner in which Tadic's cars were driving. The guard did not realize it was the motorcade for the President.

1389.
Date: February 11, 2006
Target: Vice President Dick Cheney
Location: Corpus Christi, Texas
Details: Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a quail-hunting trip, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets. Emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to the injured man until the ambulance arrived and transported him to the hospital.

1390.
Date: September 18, 2006
Target: Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
Location: Gaza City, Gaza Strip
Details: Haniyeh was approaching the Parliament Building when his path was blocked by protesters. His bodyguards then opened fire to disperse the crowd. At least one woman was reportedly hurt in the melee.

"I ran over to the Associated Press wire, with a red light flashing, meaning urgent story coming, and there was the flash: PRESIDENT SHOT ... And it all came back to me. All the police chiefs and Secret Service warnings that always seemed so stupid; all the worry and the jokes about assassinations; all the preparations I'd always laughed at."

Jerry Bruno and Jeff Greenfield,
The Advance Man,
on the assassination of JFK

Section 4

Attacks Against U.S. Presidents

At the time of President Abraham Lincoln's death, he kept an envelope entitled "Assassinations," which contained 80 death threats. Presidents today receive that many threats nearly every week.

There are 15 officially-counted attacks on U.S. Presidents, with weapons including pistols, a rifle, an assault rifle, a bomb, and even an airplane. Only one attack involved multiple gunmen, and they were the only people in the official 15 that could be called terrorists. All of the other attackers acted alone, although Booth's shooting of Abraham Lincoln was part of a conspiracy and he was arguably a terrorist.

We said only 15 incidents are officially counted as attacks on U.S. Presidents, however there have been many more attempts on the lives of U.S. Presidents, some foiled or deterred at the scene (a woman realizes she can't get into an event without her handgun being detected, for example), and some never reported publicly. Also, the criteria for what is or is not called an attack is not always consistent. For example, an attempt by Samuel Byck to hijack an airliner and force it to crash into the White House is counted as a attack even though Byck didn't get the jet off the ground -- while an attack in which a stolen plane was actually crashed into the White House was not counted as an attack.

For the purposes of comparison to the insights gained from the cases in the Compendium, we're provided a brief review of all the officially-counted attacks on all U.S. Presidents. (Those attacks that occurred after 1960 are also included in earlier sections.)

1391.
Date: January 30, 1835
Target: President Andrew Jackson
Location: Washington, D.C.
Details: Jackson was attending a state funeral at the Capitol Building. Richard Lawrence, an out-of-work house painter, read in the newspaper that Jackson would attend and staked out the East Portico. When Jackson emerged, Lawrence stepped from behind a pillar 13 feet away and drew two single-shot pistols. The cap of one fired, but the bullet didn't fire. Jackson heard the noise, and charged Lawrence with his cane raised. Lawrence fired the second pistol, but it also misfired. He was apprehended, prosecuted, and committed to a mental hospital where he later died.

1392.
Date: April 14, 1865
Target: President Abraham Lincoln
Location: Washington, D.C.
Details: Lincoln was watching the play
Our American Cousin
at Ford's Theater, seated with his wife Mary, Major Henry Rathbone, and Clara Harris in Box 7. Officer John Parker, who was assigned as his bodyguard, became bored and went next door to a saloon to get a drink, leaving Lincoln unprotected. John Wilkes Booth, one of nine conspirators, stepped into the box behind Lincoln and shot him in the back of the head with a .44 caliber Derringer. He then stabbed Rathbone, jumped onto the stage, and escaped. Lincoln was carried across the street to the Peterson House, where he died nine hours later. Booth was shot and killed by soldiers on April 26, while hiding in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia.

1393.
Date: July 2, 1881
Target: President James Garfield
Location: Washington, D.C.
Details: Charles Guiteau waited for Garfield to arrive at the train station after reading in the newspaper that he would leave that day. Garfield arrived unguarded, accompanied by Secretary of State James Blaine. As Garfield walked through the waiting room, Guiteau approached them from the rear and fired a .44 British Bulldog revolver, striking Garfield in the back. The bullet fractured his eleventh and twelfth ribs, the first lumbar vertebra, severed a large artery, and stopped behind the pancreas. He then stepped closer and fired again, but only pierced Garfield's coat sleeve. Guiteau was apprehended by a nearby policeman, tried, and hung. Garfield was rushed back to the White House, but died two months later from complications.

1394.
Date: September 6, 1901
Target: President William McKinley
Location: Buffalo, New York
Details: Leon Czolgosz read in the Buffalo newspaper that McKinley would be shaking hands in a receiving line at the Pan American Exposition Hall. The hall was heavily guarded with soldiers, Expo police, four Secret Service agents and four Buffalo police detectives. Czolgosz approached with a .32 Iver Johnson revolver concealed with a handkerchief wrapped around his hand. When McKinley moved to shake his hand, Czolgosz pushed it aside and shot him twice, once in the breastbone and once in the abdomen. The first bullet didn't penetrate; the second came to rest in the muscles of his back. At the time of the shots, one Secret Service agent had his hand on Czolgosz's back, pushing him through the line. Czolgosz was overpowered, tried, and electrocuted. McKinley died eight days after the attack.