By Rodd Cayton
Mohave Valley Daily News
BULLHEAD CITY, Ariz. — Be prepared, but don’t think you know what to expect.
That was the message Bullhead City police Capt. Tad Appleby had for 100 or so people gathered at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church for a presentation on surviving an active shooter event.
Appleby is the police department’s tactical commander, supervising SWAT team, bomb squad and other personnel.
He said citizens should be wary of thinking about “what to do when ‘he’ comes in with a ‘gun.’ ”
“He” may not be a “he,” Appleby said, and may be armed with some other weapon. Case in point: an attack in China in which a knife-wielding man slashed and injured at least 22 schoolchildren.
What may be valuable, Appleby said, is taking note of a situation that “just doesn’t seem right.”
For example, the person in church who doesn’t seem prepared to participate in Mass. Or an individual wearing a heavy coat when the weather suggests something else is more appropriate.
Appleby said such suspicions may have a benign and understandable explanation, but it’s good to make sure there’s no danger.
Hollywood, Appleby said, has programmed people to expect gunfire to sound a certain way. But shots will sound different downrange from close to the weapon and different still when the person hearing them is on the outside of the room or building in which the incident is taking place.
More reliable clues, he said, will be in what’s going on and how people are reacting.
Appleby mentioned his mother’s experience during the 2007 Westroads Mall shooting in Omaha, Neb. He said she couldn’t hear the gunfire, but having read his lesson plan, knew from the number of people running down the concourse that she should evacuate.
“The first thing you’ve got to do to save your life is accept that it can and does happen and that it may be happening to you,” Appleby said.
Another dangerous preconception is that the shooter will enter the same way everyone else does. In the church, for example, he said, the perpetrator may come in through a side door, which many congregants may have planned on using for an exit.
Historically, he said, active shooters have not given much warning: no shouting or firing rounds in the air.
“They have consciously already made the decision to murder their fellow human beings,” he said. “To kill as many as they can.”
The evening also included a video called “Run, Hide, Fight,” put together by Houston authorities, that spells out the choices those present during an active shooter event have in trying to save their lives.
Running, Appleby said, simply means putting distance between oneself and the threat.
“When you see the gun,” he said, “that’s the time to clear, extend and escape.”
While it’s advisable to try to encourage others to also make a break for it, the video suggests not letting others slow down one’s escape.
Hiding, he said, may be the best option for small children or those with disabilities. Locked and obstructed doors, and darkness, are among the best aids for hiding, according to Appleby and the video.
Fighting, Appleby said, may mean the need to improvise weapons to disarm the shooter.
“Are you capable of injuring, hurting or killing another human being?” he asked rhetorically? “If not, fighting is probably not your best option,”
Appleby suggested caution for a bystander or witness who has acquired a weapon.
“Please don’t be holding it when my officers come in,” he said, adding that all participants are likely to be detained and possibly handcuffed until responding law enforcement officers can sort out the event.
He also said that officers will ignore victims and bystanders — even those begging for help — until they’ve “eliminated all of the threats.”
In active shooter situations, he said, a person is killed every eight seconds on average, meaning a short pause to help one person could be fatal to another.
Appleby said active shooter events are extremely rare — there were 16 such individuals last year, out of a population of more than 312 million — making it hard to develop a reliable profile.
He said though it seems active shooter events are on the rise, they have taken place at about the same rate for most of a century.
Teacher Julia Wankewycz said she found the presentation useful. She said he has been on edge since Sandy Hook.
“It got me thinking about what I might do,” Wankewycz said. “I feel way more prepared now.”
Art Alvarez said the presentation might cause area residents to be more vigilant and that he would like to see the BHCPD’s message spread to other churches.
Appleby said he makes active shooter presentations periodically, and counts five or six in the past few months. Groups interested in hearing about the topic may contact him at 928-763-9200, ext. 125.
Copyright 2013 Mohave Valley Daily News, Brehm Communications Inc.