MojNews_ Bodyguards could have saved former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe if they shielded him or removed him from the line of fire in the ۲.۵ seconds between a missed first shot and the second round of gunfire that fatally wounded him, according to eight security experts.

The failure to protect Abe from the second shot followed what appeared to be a series of security lapses in the lead-up to the assassination of Japan’s longest-serving leader on July ۸, the Japanese and international experts said.

Abe’s killing in the western city of Nara by a man using a homemade weapon shocked a nation where gun violence is rare and politicians campaign up close to the public with light security.

Japanese authorities – including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida – have acknowledged security lapses, and police say they are investigating.

After leaving ۶۷-year-old Abe exposed from behind as he spoke on a traffic island on a public road, his security detail allowed the attacker – identified by police as Tetsuya Yamagami, ۴۱ – to come within metres of Abe unchecked, carrying a weapon, the footage showed.

“They should have seen the attacker very deliberately walking towards the rear of the prime minister and intervened,” said Kenneth Bombace, the head of Global Threat Solutions, which provided security to Joe Biden when he was a presidential candidate.

Yamagami came within about seven metres (۲۳ feet) of Abe before firing his first shot, which missed, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said, citing investigative sources. He fired the second shot, which hit, at about five metres (۱۶.۴ feet) away, it said.

Abe’s bodyguards did not appear to have “concentric rings of security” around him, said John Soltys, a former Navy SEAL and CIA officer now a vice president at security firm Prosegur. “They didn’t have any kind of surveillance in the crowd.”

Asked about the experts’ analysis, the Nara Prefectural Police, in charge of security for Abe’s campaign stop, told Reuters in a statement the department was “committed to thoroughly identifying the security problems” with Abe’s protection, declining to comment further.

after the first shot, Abe turned and looked over his left shoulder. Two bodyguards scrambled to get between him and the attacker, one hoisting a slim black bag. Two others headed toward the gunman, who moved closer through the smoke.

Although Abe’s security tackled the assailant moments later and arrested him, it was the “wrong response” for some of the security to go after the attacker instead of moving to protect Abe, said Mitsuru Fukuda, a Nihon University professor specialising in crisis management and terrorism.

There was enough security, “but no sense of danger,” said Yasuhiro Sasaki, a retired police officer in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo who handled security for VIPs. “Everyone was startled and no one went to where Abe was.”

The Tokyo police, in charge of VIP politicians’ bodyguards, referred questions to the Nara police.