Hundreds hear Austin police advice on mass shootings,
For the hundreds of people who gathered at a North Austin church to receive training on what to do during a mass shooting, Austin police officers had one sobering message on preparation: It’s “when, not if ” such violence comes to town.
“When it happens, it’s like a tornado,” officer Frank Creasey said.
“We’ve been lucky in Austin, Texas,” officer Joshua Visi said. “We need to stop saying, ‘Not here. It will happen somewhere else.’ The more we talk about it, the more we pay attention, the quicker we’ll react and prevent it.”
More than 375 people filed into the pews of the St. Albert the Great Catholic Church on Sunday evening, according to organizers. They included the church’s parishioners and members of other nearby congregations. The event had been on the calendar since November in response to the Sutherland Springs church shooting, but interest surged after last week’s massacre at a high school in Parkland, Fla., which killed 17 people.
Such events resonate in Austin, where 51 years ago University of Texas student Charles Whitman opened fire from the UT Tower. He killed 12 people — two more died later of their injuries — and wounded nearly three dozen others on Aug. 1, 1966. The Tower shooting had a profound impact on national police training and response to so-called active shooters.
Linda Messier, a St. Albert parishioner, was soaking in the Very Rev. Matt Iwuji’s sermon
in November as he openly considered what degree of responsibility churches’ pastors, ushers or staffers have to keep the people safe.
Learning from others
Iwuji had recently attended a similar session in a Williamson County church and immediately saw its usefulness. So Messier, who volunteers for the Austin Police Department, helped bring its training program to St. Albert.
“All churches have the responsibility to keep people safe in their church,” Messier thought at the time. “So I approached (Iwuji) and said, ‘Do you want to do this?’”
For the past two years, the department has been developing and teaching the active shooter program, usually to businesses, private schools or smaller church gatherings. Creasey has led roughly 10 sessions over the years. He said Sunday’s was the largest public session he had ever seen.
Emergency response time to an active shooter situation averages three minutes, officers said. Sunday’s training session detailed everything people can do to protect and defend themselves in that three-minute window.
They suggested making a response plan that the church staff and congregants can learn and practice, something that can be followed almost reflexively in an emergency. These plans can include the basics, such as knowing how to lock down a room or where the fire escapes are, and the more nuanced, including how those with licensed handguns should respond.
More change needed
“As a community, as a congregation or in our school districts, we need to put this out there for everybody to hear: We need change,” said Ramón Ocañas III, who has been a member of St. Albert for the past year. “In the ’60s during the Cuban Missile Crisis, people were doing nuclear bomb drills . ... We can’t solve all the problems with one magic bullet, but we can come together and count on other people to help solve these issues.”
Officers offered themselves and the department’s other district representatives as resources for helping churches or businesses formulate response plans.
By the end of the night, Iwuji assured attendees that it would be something his congregation and staff would begin in the coming months.