KAILUA-KONA— In modern America, any office, school, parking lot or other public space can become a bullet-swept killing ground. ADVERTISING KAILUA-KONA— In modern America, any office, school, parking lot or other public space can become a bullet-swept killing ground. That
KAILUA-KONA— In modern America, any office, school, parking lot or other public space can become a bullet-swept killing ground.
That includes Hawaii, although the last mass shooting was in 1999.
But with a number of high profile mass shootings grabbing headlines in Paris and San Bernardino, California, a number of local businesses are inviting Hawaii Police Department officers into their places to instruct employees on what to do should the unthinkable happen.
“Our island is not as wonderful as it used to be,” said Lt. Thomas Shopay of the police department’s Special Response Team, who has been leading classes on what to do in office environments if a mass shooter were to enter — a presentation that more businesses are taking up.
Shopay described active shooting incidents as having a low probability of happening. But should it occur, everyone in the area is at a “very high risk” for injury or harm.
There are some guiding principals the officers pass on. Preparation is key.
“Don’t adopt the mentality that it will never happen here or to me,” Shopay wrote in an email. “We hope it never does, but we should have a simple plan of action in place should it happen. You don’t want to be wasting precious seconds in denial as it’s happening in front of you, those seconds would better be used in getting away to safety.”
Some things to keep in mind, Shopay said, is to realize a mass shooter could be anyone. Often, they are people who feel society or someone has wronged them. If they are disgruntled employees, often they leave little clues people can pick up on. It could be as subtle as an employee asking what time the boss arrives every morning, or is at during a specific hour each day.
“First and foremost trust your intuition,” Shopay wrote. “In this case, as is true with most others, there are lots of little clues that we tend to ignore until it is too late.”
The culprit feeling wronged by society was part of the theory of why Byran Uyesugi killed seven people at the Xerox Engineering Systems office in Honolulu on Nov. 2, 1999, in the deadliest and most recent mass shooting in state history.
Reports said he felt misused, neglected and thought an attempt to retrain him on a new machine would lead to his discharge. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2000 for the killings. But the high carnage in attacks recently has pushed the topic front and center for some Big Island businesses. There were multiple active shooting events last year and the deadliest in the U.S. occurred Dec. 2, 2015, when 16 people were killed and 22 injured in San Bernadino.
Hawaii Community Federal Credit Union was one of the companies whose employees went through the course.
“HFCU values our members and employees and their safety is always our priority, the company board told West Hawaii Today in an email. “Seeing the increase of these types of incidents made us realize it can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time. We wanted to be proactive in educating our staff to be more aware of warning signs and how to react correctly to keep everyone as safe as possible.”
Their employees reported feeling better prepared in case of an incident, and were made more aware of their surroundings as part of the course.
“As managers of the organization, it is important for us to ensure our employees react quickly and help guide our employees to safety,” the board wrote. “Everyone will react differently to situations like this and we need to ensure we are providing them the best guidance to keep them safe and not put them at further risk of danger.”
What insight is Shopay passing on?
A lot.
It’s distilled down to “run, hide, fight,” which ranks what to do in case of an incident. Although the impulse may be to try and fight, death would be the most likely outcome heading the shooter’s way.
Running away gets the person out of the vicinity, Shopay said, keeping the individual safe. In that case, it’s best to run erratically, using available cover.
If that’s not a possibility, people should find a way to hide. It should be a place that is not easily visible to the shooter and has materials available to absorb the force of a bullet, Shopay said, like hiding behind a overturned desk in a barricaded room.
“How many things does that bullet have to go through before it touches me?” is the question everyone should ask themselves when trying to fortify their positions, Shopay said. Good choices include offices or rooms without windows and a sturdy door.
But if there is no other option, fight the shooter. This should be an absolute last option, Shopay stressed.
He gave the example of Patricia Maisch, who was present at the shooting of then Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords in 2011. Maisch was in the middle of the parking lot and realized that running wouldn’t help, he said. She laid down, but there was really no way to hide. She took the chance when shooter Jared Lee Loughner was knocked down near her. She grabbed a magazine as Loughner tried to reload, and with the help of others who joined in, subdued him.
There exists a school of thought that a concealed carry weapon user could stop an active shooter. The officers said drawing a gun with a gunman around could actually make the situation more dangerous.
When the officers enter the building, they’ll have, at best, a vague description of the shooter. So when they see a person with a gun, the assumption is that they are a threat, Shopay said, and that could lead to a tragic outcome.
One of the men who responded in the Arizona shooting, concealed carry licensee Joe Zamudio, nearly shot the wrong person at the scene. That person was the one who had taken the gun from Loughner.
If planning is key, it doesn’t necessarily mean a complicated plan, Shopay said. It simply means thinking ahead, being aware of escape routes and places to hide.
“There’s a lot of people who are not prepared,” he said.
Some people hanging out recently at crowded business areas said they had a plan already.
Tyrone Young was out at the Lanihau Center with other musicians, where they regularly gather to play music. He said he had already considered what to do.
“I’ll be 77 in April,” he said, adding his plan would be to rush the shooter, attempting to move the barrel or at least absorb initial shots.
That should give everyone else a chance to flee or take cover, he said, gesturing to the cars, seats and booths in the area.
Shopay described mass shooter’s thinking as “I don’t want to be the guy who makes the local news. I want the world to know how I’ve been wronged.”
He passed along other things learned from previous shootings.
One was at Columbine, the first modern, high-profile mass shooting, when a teacher at the Colorado high school told the students in the library to get under the tables. That was fatal for several of them.
Don’t open the door if someone knocks and claims they are a fellow survivor. Seung-Hui Cho, the man who killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech in 2007, knocked at doors and asked to be let in.
Balance the chance of rescuing one person against the danger of exposing yourself and others, Shopay said. If someone is injured, there’s the chance that dragging them into a safe area will actually delay care because police will not see them initially.
Businesses aren’t alone in their preparations, as Hawaii’s public schools also have training events, said Donalyn Dela Cruz, director of communications for the department.
“For security reasons, I can’t go into detail into what these exercises consist of, however, it is much more than having officers talk with students. These are drills,” she wrote in an email.
West Hawaii Today operations manager and HR specialist Norma Adamson-Fetz requested the presentation for the newspaper’s employees.
She decided to do so after “reading articles about these things previously, then San Bernadino encouraged me to act on it.”
The Gun Violence Archive tracks confirmed shootings in the United States. According to the archive, there were 330 shootings where at least four people were injured or killed in 2015. According to the records, 367 people were killed and 1,317 people were injured in those incidents.
“We also now realize, as a company, how important it is to understand that survivors of these types of incidents could suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after the event and how important it is for us as their employer to provide the necessary support and professional assistance to ensure their continued well-being,” the Hawaii Community Federal Credit Union board wrote.
