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

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


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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 imaginedinsults-ie school shooters
BIOLOGY

REACTIVE
KILLERS
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High limbic activity
High cingulate gyrus activity
AggressiveObsessiveNo 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
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Denial
Deliberation
Decisive Moment
Denial…Underestimating the
severity

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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!

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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!!
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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
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
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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.