Not for long but long enough to fire shots. If the ballroom had been a little closer.......or maybe that was the plan.

All you have to do to get past Secret Service and the FBI is to run fast.

Amateur.

..it really is amazing that he survived and was apparently not even shot. Maybe the SS was partying with Patel before the event.

This rushing tactic is typical and common among shooters with no military or LEO background. They think they are going to run in and shoot or stab their target. Hinckley's planning was minimal. Same for Chapman. Neil Young has a lyric about "a kinder gentler machine gun hand" -- that is a real thing. In street parades, the security agents closest to the target can have high caliber guns that are covered by a fake rubber hand. Much like the 45 caliber service revolver, the caliber of the "machine gun hand" is designed to be enough to stop the attacker's forward momentum.

I worked the Olympics and we had hundreds of potential targets. LAPD was announcing VIP names over their walkie talkies and everyone around them could hear the names and locations and then people would rush to "gate 21" or wherever. So they made a rule that you could not say the name of the VIP, only "VIP".

and bought it.