When former Baltimore Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld heard about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, his mind first went to the former president and other victims there.

“Then, my thoughts immediately raced to Anthony,” Bealefeld said.

Anthony Guglielmi, who was the top spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department under Bealefeld, is now navigating a historic crisis as the chief of communications for the U.S. Secret Service. After a gunman tried to kill Trump at a Saturday campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the agency is at the center of multiple federal investigations about whether it failed to secure the event.

Guiding public response to what appears to be one of the country’s worst presidential security breaches would be a daunting task for any communications professional. But Guglielmi’s friends and former colleagues said his experience — particularly in Baltimore, where crime and policing are a constant news presence — has aptly prepared him.

Before he started at the federal agency in March 2022, Guglielmi led public relations for three of the nation’s largest police departments: Baltimore, Chicago and Fairfax County, Virginia. He maintains a robust social media presence and won an Emmy for a video honoring the death of a Chicago police dog named Brix, according to his LinkedIn profile.

“The U.S. Secret Service hired Anthony Guglielmi for a moment just like this one,” said Fairfax County Chief of Police Kevin Davis, who also served as a Baltimore police commissioner after Guglielmi’s tenure there.

Guglielmi did not respond to requests for comment.

Although it has been over a decade since Guglielmi worked in Baltimore — he held the job from December 2008 to August 2013 — to Bealefeld, he left the police agency better than he found it.

Bealefeld credited Guglielmi with spearheading the Police Department’s social media initiatives, reforming its relationship with local media and weathering numerous public relations crises.

“What he did for me during my tenure was not some calculated Machiavellian strategy,” Bealefeld said. “Anthony just really had his pulse on Baltimore and could give me very, very solid feedback about what was important.”

For example, Bealefeld said, in 2010, The Baltimore Sun came to the department with evidence that city police had been dismissing rape complaints as unfounded at the highest rate in the country for years. Bealefeld said he initially thought the publication was mistaken and “just trying to make us look bad.”

Guglielmi decided to dig into the claims and soon discovered they were true, Bealefeld said. Guglielmi then urged the department to publicly acknowledge the misconduct and make reforms. After The Sun published its investigation, the city created a new oversight team that included victim’s rights advocates to monitor the sex offense unit’s work.

In Baltimore, Guglielmi also made decisions that were sharply criticized by the media, politicians and activists.

The Police Department changed its policy in 2009 to stop releasing the names of officers who shot people, a move described as an effort to protect officers from retaliation. Police said 23 officers had been threatened in the previous year; news reports later showed none of those threats were related to shootings by police.

After public pushback, the department later reverted to its previous policy of releasing officer names.

While he was chief of communications for the Chicago Police Department, from June 2015 to April 2020, Guglielmi steered that agency through major cases that got national attention.

He contended with the aftermath of the October 2014 fatal shooting of a Black teenager by a white police officer. The department came under fire when dashcam footage showed Laquan McDonald had been walking away. The officer, Jason Van Dyke, later was convicted of second-degree murder and resigned from the department.

In 2019, Guglielmi led the department’s response after actor Jussie Smollett staged a fake hate crime against himself. Information about the Chicago police investigation leaked to the press, prompting an internal probe.

Now, Guglielmi is the central voice of another high-profile internal firestorm, fielding dozens of press interviews a day and debunking misinformation about the assassination attempt on social media.

He told NBC News that the rooftop where the gunman shot Trump was outside the Secret Service’s security perimeter, and instead under the purview of local law enforcement. Guglielmi would know, according to Davis, the Fairfax County police chief.

“Anthony has been on both sides of the law enforcement partnership, federally and locally, when it comes to securing sites where the president of the United States is going to be speaking,” Davis said.

Just before joining the Secret Service as spokesman, Guglielmi worked with Davis in Fairfax County, which regularly hosts presidential events due to its proximity to Washington. While Davis wouldn’t comment on the specifics of the Pennsylvania event, he said it is routine for the Secret Service and local law enforcement to divide up areas for each to patrol.

Guglielmi’s comment has drawn criticism from law enforcement and national unions. U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle also walked back the statement, telling ABC News, “The buck stops with me.”

“We are deeply grateful to the officers who ran toward danger to locate the gunman and to all our local partners for their unwavering commitment,” the Secret Service said in a public statement. “Any news suggesting the Secret Service is blaming local law enforcement for Saturday’s incident is simply not true.”

Sheryl Goldstein doubts that any of this is fazing Guglielmi. When she was the director of the Mayor’s Office on Criminal Justice in Baltimore, Goldstein said she specifically advocated for the Baltimore Police Department to hire him because he can stay calm under pressure.

In fact, Goldstein recalled joking with Guglielmi that he’d be bored in his new job because there wasn’t enough action for him.

“I was like, ‘There’s no news coming out of the Secret Service,” Goldstein said. “Now all evidence is to the contrary, right?”

Banner reporter Justin Fenton contributed to this story.