ACTIVE SHOOTER

SCHOOL TRAINING
2014
Fog of Terror
Chaos
Fear
 Our goal is to share information with
those that could find themselves in one of
these critical events and provide training
for an “active shooter” incident and a
frame of reference.
 Presentation Outline

Case Studies
Situational Awareness
Mind-set of an Active Shooter
Run, Hide & Fight
Law Enforcement Response
Columbine High School
1 Teacher Murdered
12 Students Murdered
20 Students Injured

Characteristics of Shooters During Incident

Deliberate
Robotic
No Fear
Jared Cano
Friend tipped police active shooter plan
Cano expelled
Fantasized killing more than Virgina
Tech/Columbine/Norway Summer Camp 2011
Planned to commit suicide
Cano video taped his plans prior to his arrest
 Newtown, CT December 14, 2012
Sandy Hook Elementary School
Adam Lanza – 20 years old
Killed Mother
Semi-auto AR-15 Assault Rifle
2 hand guns
28 dead including 20 children
Suicide
• Loner
• Asperger Syndrome
• Spent most of time on a computer playing violent video games
• Quiet to a depth which could not be penetrated
 Waseca Junior/Senior High School
Minnesota 2013

The Plan

• Kill family
• Diversionary fire in rural area to distract first
responders
• Violent plans in 180 page notebook filled with notes on
school shootings and massacres
• Critiqued other school events
Promised a bigger shooting event
• Practiced setting off bombs at a nearby playground
• Neighbor tipped police after seeing Ladue entering
storage unit filled with supplies

The Goal
“Take out as many students he could”
 The Clock is Ticking….

 5 Year Study of 65 Events:

 Someone dies every 15
seconds
 Typical event is over in 3 to
4 minutes
 Police response is 5 to 7
minutes
FRAME OF REFERENCE
You have a frame of reference when;
You have Thoughts, Feelings about an issue

You have a strong frame of reference when:

You have personal experiences with an issue

It is difficult to have a Frame of Reference about an

issue if :
•Have no feelings about it
•You have no personal experience (behavioral) with it
•You have never thought about it
•DO NOT BELIEVE IT COULD EVER HAPPEN TO YOU
 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ACTIVE
SHOOTER

 They “told” some one

 Shooting is planned
 Motive is revenge- “make it fair”
 History of depression
 78% suicidal at time of shooting
 Student was “different”
 Acting out their emotional needs
LIFE EXPERIENCES OF AN ACTIVE SHOOTER
(CASE STUDIES)

• Abused and or felt abused

• Socially isolated
• Socially anxious
• Aggressive as children
• Chronically depressed
• “Odd kids” have few friends if any
• “Odd kids” are teased
• “Odd kids” try their parents’ patience and love
 LIFE EXPERIENCES OF AN ACTIVE
SHOOTER
(CASE STUDIES)
CONT..
• Threats
• Allusions to violence
• Excessive or intimidating reference to mass murder or
shooting sprees, real or fiction
• Intimidating weapon comments
• Depression or suicidal thoughts
• Paranoia
• Repeatedly accusing other people of causing one’s
problems
• Unreasonable complaints
 With their guns they are acting out
EMOTIONAL NEEDS
 To be heard/seen

 To be recognized

 To be seen as powerful

 To have their unbelievable pain and rage

acknowledged
 BIOLOGY

 NORMAL BRAIN ACTIVITY- Proactive

Killers-kill to achieve a thought out goal–ie
robbery

 ABNORMAL BRAIN ACTIVITY- Reactive

Killers-kill in response to real or imagined-
insults-ie school shooters
 BIOLOGY

REACTIVE
 ..\..\All
KILLERS Users\Documents\My
Pictures\Kodak Pictures\2006-11-
08\102_0446.jpg
Low prefrontal activity

High limbic activity

High cingulate gyrus activity

Aggressive-
Obsessive-
No empathy-
 MIDDLE SCHOOL vs HIGH
SCHOOL
 Middle School shooters: are usually alive
when first responders arrive

 High School/College shooters: are usually

not alive when first responders arrive
What you can expect of yourself

 1. Hyperventilation
 2. Accelerated Heart Rate

 3. Adrenaline Rush

 4. Loss of Peripheral Vision

 5. Diminished hearing
 This Can’t Be Happening

 Three Phases of Our Mental

Disaster Response
 Denial
 Deliberation
 Decisive Moment
 Denial…Underestimating the
severity

 Denial is delaying action

 Delaying action costs time
 Delaying action can cost lives
Denial and Social Proof

Diffusion of Responsibility
• In ambiguous situations we look at others for cues on how to act

• If they do nothing, you will do nothing

• If they act, you will act

 Deliberation
 We made it past
Denial
 Now decide what to
do….
 Fear enters the
equation
 Brain not working
well
 Deliberation
 Stress Side Effects
 Ability to think is
seriously impaired
 Vision narrows
 Time distortion

 Auditory exclusion

 Fine motor skills

deteriorate
 Programming Responses

 Think through events before a

disaster
 Plan your response
 Practice your response

“The best way to get the brain to perform under extreme stress
is to repeatedly run it through rehearsals beforehand…”
 Decisive Moment

 Denied
 Deliberated

 Time to ACT!

 Be Prepared

“The one thing you don’t ever want to do is have to

think in a disaster”….9/11 Survivor
RUN
HIDE
FIGHT
RUN!
 Always Be Aware
 Know Escape
Routes
 Exits

 Windows

 Decide to Leave at
First Opportunity
and Report
 Go into Lockdown
Mode
 LOCK!
 Lock Doors
 Barricade access points
 Door stops

 Furniture

 Rope doors closed

 Cover windows
 Darken room
 Go into Run mode
again
Lockdown Considerations
 Barricading doors:
 Outward opening

 Eye bolts

 Rope

 Inward opening

 Furniture

 Kick bars

 Door stops
 FIGHT!!

 Have a survivor’s (not a victim’s) mindset

 Decide right now that your are going to do whatever it
takes to survive
 Getting shot does not mean that you are dead
 You can and must keep going!
 Law Enforcement

The older tactics used were to contain the

suspect and wait for tactical teams to arrive
to make entry.

Today, rapid deployment by all law

enforcement personnel should be used to
minimize harm to innocent persons.
 Law Enforcement Assessment

 Activity
 On-going violence (active shooter)
 Placing or detonating explosives designed to
cause injury
 Number of Suspects involved
 Increased potential for mass casualties
Immediate Action / Rapid Deployment

Rapid Deployment Objectives:

1. Save lives

2. Locate the threat

3. Neutralize the threat

4. Remove the threat

5. Contain the threat

 HOSTAGE RESCUE
If suspect alone

Treat as barricaded gunman

Contain
Prevent ability to move negotiation

If suspect with hostages

Contain
Negotiations
Law Enforcement concealment, close enough to enter area

If suspect begins to endanger hostages –SWAT Members

will immediately intervene-Glass breaking, explosions,
bright lights, smoke – speed, shock, surprise

Hostage Compliance
 J.P. Coroner Office
Teen Life Counts
2013/2014 School Year

2,963 Students Interviewed

462 Referrals

Depression
Anxiety
Cutting
Burning
Suicidal

Self Referral

Peer Referral
 School System Pro-Active Approach

• Communicate with students encouraging

reporting of suspicious activity
• Use technology to create a mechanism
indicators of potentially violent behavior and
sending alerts about incidents
• Policy to immediately report suspicious persons
on campus grounds especially anyone scaling
fences
• Automated notification system if an event
develops
• Plans for the arrival of law enforcement
• Open lines of communication with students
family
 Department of Justice-Strategic Approach

• Post-event evidence identified that changes in the

subjects’ behavior were not effectively communicate
in ways that could have prevented tragedies.

• Many recent events have involved offenders who

were knows to have mental health problems. Mental
health problems are contributing factors to the
violence

• Natural order of family unit is to protect and care

for its members; however the family has the
potential to serve as first source of identifying
problems

• Cultural shift-reporting abnormal behavior is in

best interest of society – a civic responsibility -
 Final Thought
IN AN ACTIVE SHOOTER
INCIDENT, IT IS TEAMWORK
AND PREPARATION, WHICH
WILL PROTECT INNOCENT
PERSONS AND SAVE LIVES.