Vanessa Junkin

vjunkin@dmg.gannett.com

An active shooter event can happen anywhere.

"You can't escape the potential for this type of event," Trooper 1st Class Stephen Hallman said.

Hallman, a trooper at the Maryland State Police Salisbury barrack, and his colleague, Cpl. Ted Antal, led a free Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events training at Providence Presbyterian Church in Salisbury on Friday night.

"You have a role in these incidences," Hallman told the attendees.

Both Hallman and Antal were wearing black mourning bands over their badges. The training came just two days after two Harford County deputies were shot and killed, one inside Panera Bread and another nearby in connection with the same incident. While that incident may not qualify as an active shooter event, it does underscore that shootings can happen anywhere.

Attendees at Friday's event heard a frantic 911 call from a teacher at Columbine High School, where the well-known mass shooting happened in 1999. Hallman also spoke of various other active shooter situations and other deadly situations such as the bombing at the Boston Marathon.

He also talked about how people decide how to react to situations based on how others are reacting.

Attendees watched a video in which plenty of people walked past actors pretending to be sick and lying outside. But once someone helped, another person went to help, too. And the response by other people also happened much more quickly when the person was wearing a suit.

People should have a plan for dealing with an active shooter-type incident ahead of time, as it will be much harder to think of and execute a plan under stress, Hallman said. He talked about how as a person's heart rate increases, the person loses certain skills.

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While a somewhat elevated heart rate can be good, by the time someone is in the 150-175 beats per minute range, the person feels like time has slowed down and also can't really hear, he said. When the heart rate is higher than that, the body undergoes a "tactical shutdown," he said.

Mental scripting, or coming up with a plan of what to do or where to meet if something happens, is "crucial," Hallman said.

One reason people need to have a plan and know what to do is because police don't arrive instantaneously. Antal said the average law enforcement response time in a situation like this is three minutes.

Playing dead isn't a good idea, and neither is hiding, Antal said. If a person plays dead, he or she becomes an easy target for the person looking to kill, Hallman said.

Antal went over "Avoid | Deny | Defend," which was created by Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training.

Attendees watched a video of a shooting at a school board meeting that happened after the shooter vandalized the wall.

Maryland State Police offer free training for civilians

Antal said if people see something out of the ordinary like that, they should leave the area. Know where the exits are.

"Deny" includes locking the door if possible or using whatever is there as a barricade, Antal said. "Defend" can include using anything possible — from keys to a chair — to fight off the assailant, he said.

"Change that fear into anger," he said.

It's also possible to survive a shooting, he said.

When police arrive, they may pass over someone who has been shot, because the first priority is to stop the killing from continuing, Antal said. The next step will be to stop people from dying.

Hallman demonstrated how to use a tourniquet, saying it's something everyone should have, and he also talked about other first aid items. Even a plastic bag or piece of plastic can work as a replacement for a Hyfin Chest Seal, he said.

Linda Stamp of Salisbury, one of the training attendees, is an emergency room nurse and volunteers at her grandchildren's schools, and she described the presentation as "excellent."

"The officers did a great job," she said.

The Salisbury barrack is extremely supportive of these community training sessions, Hallman said, and he expects there will be another training for the public in the beginning of the summer. The date hasn't yet been determined, but the Salisbury barrack can be reached at 410-749-3101.

RESOURCES

ALERRT.org

avoiddenydefend.org

iloveyouguys.org

https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-100.b

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