For as long as memory serves, Law Enforcement has been in the business of reacting to things that happened. Yes, there are a lot of things we can do to stem crime and bad behavior. Locally, I’ve had people tell me of an area where drivers seemingly ignore the speed limit. When I have the chance, I will run radar in that area. After making a few traffic contacts, the flow of traffic usually slows down. It’s common knowledge that stepped-up traffic enforcement causes the motoring public to be more mindful of how they drive.
In recent years, Law Enforcement everywhere has stepped up training in the area of responding to an active shooter incident. This is something we all hope we will never have to respond to but if we do, we need to be prepared to respond. Look around at your communities and see where an incident could happen. Schools, churches, malls, hospitals, offices, just anywhere a shooter can go and kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible.
On Thursday afternoon, reports began to filter in over the news services about an active shooter incident at Ft Hood, Texas. How could something like this happen at, of all places, a United States military base on United States soil? Over the next days, weeks, months and even years, we will learn what happened to cause an Army major to snap and kill 13 people and wound 31. Rather than dwell on the shooter, my focus is on the first responders at the scene. In particular, the Ft Hood Police Department police officers who confronted the shooter and neutralized the threat. Sgt Kimberly Munley engaged the shooter and suffered a gunshot wound to her right wrist and was shot in each thigh. Her partner, Sgt Mark Todd, also exchanged fire with the shooter. According to news reports, Sgt Munley started her Law Enforcement career with the Wrightsville Beach, N.C. Police Department as a reserve officer. She later worked as a beach patrol officer and as an officer in the uniform patrol division. Sgt Munley is a U.S. Army veteran who joined the Ft Hood Police Department in January 2008. She is a member of the emergency response team and a department firearms instructor.
Sgt Mark Todd is a retired soldier who is a police officer with the Ft Hood Police Department. He arrived just after Sgt Munley. Sgt Todd related that seconds after he arrived on the scene, he saw a calm-looking Hasan, his gun drawn and his fingers pointing at people outside the Soldier Readiness Processing Center. Todd said he then saw Hasan shooting at soldiers as they attempted to flee. Sgt Todd shouted at the shooter to stop, but he turned and fired at Sgt Todd, who returned fire. The shooter then slumped down against a utility pole and fell on his back. Sgt Todd then approached the downed suspect, kicked his weapon away and handcuffed the suspect.
Both Sgt Munley and Sgt Todd are heroes who did exactly as they were trained. They located the shooter and quickly neutralized him. Because of their actions, they undoubtedly saved many lives.
The next day word was received of an active shooter incident in Orlando, FL at an office building. One person was killed and five were injured. The shooter was a former employee who was able to leave the building before officers arrived. He was arrested without incident at his mother’s home about three hours after the shootings. He had been fired by the company in 2007 after working for the firm for a year. When a reporter outside of the Police Department asked the shooter why he did it, he replied “Because they left me to rot.”
On Sunday morning the Lincoln, Nebraska newspaper reported on a shooting in a Vail. Colorado bar. A 63-yr old Vail resident is in jail at the Eagle County Jail on a charge of first degree homicide and possibly some other charges.
Witnesses said the shooter was involved in an argument and was escorted out of the bar by staff, police said. Once outside, he began shooting, police said. He then re-entered the bar and continued shooting, police said.
The man who died in the shooting was identified as a 70-yr old man from Carbondale.
The injured victims include a 63-year-old Vail resident who sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was transported via helicopter to Denver Health with “life threatening” injuries, Sheriff Henninger said. A 29-year-old victim remains in the Vail Valley Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the arm, and a 25-year-old was released from the Vail hospital after being treated for a leg wound.
The 29-year-old was a Sandbar employee, while the other three victims, including Kitching, were patrons, Henninger said.
The shooter appears to have acted alone, and there are no other suspects, Henninger said.
The story gave no information as to where the arrest occurred or the response of Law Enforcement.
If there was never another active shooter incident, that would suit all of law enforcement just fine. But with the current social and economic conditions, it will happen again. We just need to be sure we are prepared when they happen.
On Halloween night, two Seattle police officers had cleared a traffic stop and were sitting on the side of the street discussing the stop. A car pulled alongside the stopped patrol car and somebody inside the car opened fire on the officers without warning. Field training officer Timothy Brenton was killed and Officer Brit Sweeney was injured. Hundreds of officers from scores of agencies became involved in the investigation. Through the hard work of law enforcement and tips by citizens, a suspect was developed. When officers attempted to contact the suspect, he drew a gun and officers fired at him, wounding him. He is in a Seattle hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The Seattle Police Department has said the suspect is also suspected in the firebombing of four police vehicles a week prior to the shootings of Officers Brenton and Sweeney.
The senseless attack on the Seattle officers reminds all of us that we never can be complacent. We need to always be mindful of our surroundings. I was reading an officer survival article last summer that was written by an expert who teaches officer survival all across the United States. One comment he made stuck in my mind, and it says volumes about attacks on police officers. He said that as police officers, we should be thinking about how to survive an attack by everybody we meet. In the end, we want to always come home to our families at the end of our shifts.
Wednesday is Veterans Day. Please make an effort to honor all our veterans past and present. Remember, if you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a veteran.
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