“One of the primary purposes is to get churches to understand that they need to develop an emergency operations plan for their house of worship. That will include active shooter and a lot of other emergency situations,” one of the forum’s presenters, Rev. David I. Fox, retired Wilberforce University Police chief, said.
Fox, whose law enforcement career has spanned 40 years, said he will be sharing the precepts of A.L.I.C.E., which stands for Alert, Lock down, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.
Anyone caught in an active shooter situation should first try to get out and second call for help, Fox said.
“If you can’t get out or you can’t call out, then you need to hide out,” Fox said. “Then once you are hidden, then you need to keep out. You keep people out by putting up barricades.” If all this fails and the armed perpetrator manages to get to you, then Fox said your option then is to take out that perpetrator.
“At that time, you need to do whatever you can do. Throw books, throw a desk, a table, whatever you can pick up. Just throw it at the person,” Fox said.
The forum comes after mass shootings this year including in a Charleston, S.C. church where nine people were killed; in Chattanooga, Tenn., where five members of the military were killed during an attack on military recruiting centers; and in Lafayette, La., where two women were killed and nine others injured inside a movie theater.
There were 160 active shooter incidents in the United States between 2000 and 2013, according to an Active Shooter Incidents Study released last year by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
Six of the 160 incidents occurred in places of worship, resulting in 21 people killed.
Fifteen of these incidents occurred in open spaces, resulting in 45 people killed.
Forty-four of these incident occurred in business environments generally open to pedestrian traffic, resulting in 124 people killed.
Eight of these incidents occurred in Ohio.
Saturday’s forum is being organized by Trotwood City Councilwomen Mary McDonald and Bettye Gales.
“There are so many things that are happening in this world and in this United States today about these active shooters going on in the churches and the schools. We just need to have the latest information about what to do,” Gales said. “I’m not sure if many people in the Trotwood-area even know where to go, if we have a natural disaster.”
Trotwood Fire & Rescue Chief Stephen Milliken will share information on natural disaster planning.
“We’ll talk to the community about where you go, how you do it, what we do and the plans we have in place,” Milliken said.
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