Agent Guarding Stockdale Dies of Heart Attack
A Secret Service agent died of a heart attack in Los Angeles while guarding retired Adm. James B. Stockdale, independent presidential candidate Ross Perot’s running mate, officials said Wednesday.
James Steve Collins, 43, suffered the heart attack Tuesday afternoon on the Tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport as he left a plane and prepared to climb into a motorcade car, said Stephen Colo, assistant special agent in charge in Los Angeles.
“He complained of chest pains and then he collapsed,” Colo said.
Collins, the assistant special agent in charge of the Louisville, Ky., office, was taken by ambulance to nearby Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Stockdale was in another motorcade car at the time. Colo said he didn’t know whether Stockdale knew what happened.
The vice presidential candidate was meeting with newspaper editorial boards in the region, Perot campaign spokeswoman Sharon Holman said in Dallas.
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