As RNC began in Milwaukee, the Aloft Hotel experienced a "false alarm" incident with Secret Service
Hotel employees were fixing an air conditioning unit on the roof and were met by armed members of U.S. Secret Service.
The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.
As the Republican National Convention got underway in Milwaukee on Monday, July 15, the Aloft Milwaukee Hotel experienced a brief security incident involving the U.S. Secret Service. Ultimately, no one was harmed, no threats were identified, and the incident was over in a matter of minutes.
The hotel, located at 1230 N Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., is within the RNC’s “soft” security perimeter, but in close proximity to the convention grounds around Fiserv Forum. On the first official day of the convention, security and safety concerns were heightened following the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, July 13.
Hotel staff confirmed to The Recombobulation Area that armed members of the U.S. Secret Service entered the hotel and went to the roof, where two hotel employees were fixing a malfunctioning air conditioning unit. An announcement was made on the hotel’s public address system during the incident, telling guests and staff to be on lockdown. Members of Secret Service encountered the employees with guns drawn, but quickly realized the people on the roof were employees of the hotel.
Amanda Paquette, director of sales at Aloft Milwaukee Downtown who shared details of the incident, estimated that the entire encounter lasted less than 10 minutes.
“One of our event spaces had an A/C unit not working,” she said. “Our units are on the roof. Standard procedure is just to go up and check the unit. Two of our employees went to the rooftop and were working on the unit when the Secret Service approached through the (main entrance). They were greeted by security on site for a group that’s staying with us. They said the whole building is on lockdown, (asked) us how to get to the roof, in full tactical gear. They were brought up to the roof. Our employees were pretty much, in the moment, held at gunpoint.”
She added that employees were on the roof for “maybe five minutes, max” before Secret Service came to the main entrance.
“They were not kidding around,” Paquette said.
Once it was clear that the people on the roof were employees of the hotel, Paquette said, “The situation went from really high intensity to really low intensity really quickly.”
“Once they came back in and debriefed the on-site security, it was (clear) this was a false alarm, everybody (went) back to normal,” she said. “But when we were on lockdown, there was an announcement that nobody is to leave the building, nobody is to come into the building. And everybody staff-wise, we were OK, but from the client’s perspective, it definitely put them on 10 very quickly.”
Paquette said the Secret Service went up to the roof “a total of three times” over the course of the day on Monday.
U.S. Secret Service has not yet responded to request for comment. The hotel has not yet provided an official statement.
Paquette did not recall the specific time of the incident, but said it was around mid-day.
The Aloft Milwaukee Hotel is located in close proximity to what was the planned protest route for the Coalition to March on the RNC. That march left Red Arrow Park at about 12 p.m. on Monday, and went past the Aloft at about 1:30 p.m. (you can see it in the background of this video I posted during the march). Paquette said there was no overlap between the lockdown incident and the protest march coming by the hotel.
“It was a little jarring when it happened, but safety first,” she said, saying that other than this incident, “It’s been smooth sailing.”
Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 18 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.
Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.
Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!
Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.