BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C.–Just more than a year since the Emanuel 9 shooting, Sheriff Duane Lewis and Berkeley County deputies organized a training session providing citizens with information on what to do during an active shooter situation.
“We’re not immune from it. We have large gathering places all over the county,” stated Lewis. “Let’s not forget about what happened in Charleston at Mother Emanuel.”
He welcomed a crowd of about 70 Berkeley County citizens and business owners to the program at Cane Bay High School auditorium.
“I really hate we’re having to talk about these kinds of things,” he said. “There are things you should do and things you should not do as a citizen.”
Chief Deputy Mike Cochran lead the seminar. He says FBI statistics show that a person has a 1 in 12,000,000 chance of dying in a mass shooting. He says after looking at mass shootings between 2000-2013, experts say mass shooters fit the following profiles:
- mostly involve a single shooter
- in 9 incidents, they shoot a family member first then move to a public place to continue shooting
- in 6 incidents, the shooters were female
- 40% of shooters commit suicide
He says statistics show shootings have occurred at schools, open spaces (parks), residences, places of worship, and places of commerce, with a place of commerce being the most common place.
“It’s wide open as to where it’s happening,” Cochran said. “You want to think about where am I at and what can I do?”
Cochran says in an active shooter situation do the following: run, hide, fight. He showed this video to attendees that explains how experts say you could possibly survive an active shooter event.
In the shootings during the study, 23.1% of shooters committed suicide at the scene, 13.1% unarmed citizens restrained the shooter, 3.1% armed citizens engage the shooter with gunfire, and in 1.3% armed off-duty police engage the shooters, killing them. (In the study some shooters committed suicide away from the scene and some shooter remained at large.)
“If you think about these things, God forbid, it will help you decide what to do in one of these situations,” Cochran said.
“I think it was very worthwhile, very informative. It made me think of what I would actually do in an active shooter situation,” said Charlotte Sammons said who walks with a cane. “I wouldn’t be good at running, so I’d probably be hiding. I think the whole thing was good and more people should have attended.”
The sheriff says being observant and preparation is key. He welcomes large or small companies, schools, churches, to submit plans for such a situation with the sheriff’s office.
“Anywhere we are asked to go to review a plan or train we do it,” Lewis said.
When asked whether playing dead is a good idea, Sheriff Lewis says, “Playing dead is something you have to decide based on the situation. I’m not a fan of that. The best thing you can do is run hide or fight.”
Additionally deputies say schools in the Berkeley County School District practice lockdown drills 3-4 times a year, and the School Resources Officers assigned to the various schools train during the summer on what to do during an active shooter situation.
In the future, the sheriff’s office will host similar training sessions with information such as domestic violence of DUI. The sheriff says anyone with ideas should reach out to him or any of the deputies.
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