During religious services on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019, a man clad in black with a shotgun hidden under his coat opened fire on the parishioners of the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas. Thanks to the training, vigilance and heroic bravery of the church’s security team, the attacker was stopped in just six seconds.
Would love to see a campaign like this for VA. We have established security teams in our 2 locations for our church in Hampton roads protecting nearly 4000 congregants in 4 + services.
Lots of training, and high expectations of the security teams as they are the servants and “Sheepdogs”.
This is a video still capture from a recent training event 2 weekends ago, with an “Active Shooter” scenario.
other scenarios were medical, unauthorized parent pick up, drunks, sexual molestation/harassment.
The active shooter is in blue, security in plaid. Security was seated when the shooter came down the side, pulled a gun and yelled “I’m going to kill you all”. Security made the move at the word 'kill" and neutralized the thread in 1.25 seconds (first shots).
After action, the active shooter said, he never saw nor heard the security team member until he was “tagged”. He swept the congregation then, had focused on the girl in white who screamed and dove to the floor. Security member was a sitting duck at the front row, thus the “bum rush”. Also, during the scenario they did not use hidden radios with ear-pieces that are usually used, thus another major handicap.
Radios are a major help and should always be used.
Could better tactics have been used? Yup, but this is how you learn them.