The Marshall County Sheriff’s Office is working to help ensure local church congregations know what to do in the event of an active shooter situation.
MCSO will host an active shooter training session designed to help churchgoers know what to do to increase their chances of survival in an attack. Sheriff Kevin Byars said the event will review best practices on how to handle the shooter, as well as how to interact with law enforcement in that situation. Byars said the training was something the department had considered for quite some time; after a gunman opened fire Nov. 5 on a small community church in Sutherland Springs, Texas – a town with a population of fewer than 1,000 residents – and killed about half the congregation, Byars said the department knew it was time to implement the program.
“We’ve been thinking about that for a long, long time anyway with what happened in Las Vegas and a couple of other church shootings, of course the one that happened in South Carolina,” Byars said. “And you hate to think that will happen here, but it could. You never know. … Basically this is a training of what to look for, what to expect, how to keep yourself safe, what to do after you protect yourself – you know, hide, fight or flight, one of the three – but after the event, whatever takes place and we’re called, what to do prior to us arriving so we don’t come in and mistake someone in the congregation as the bad guy.”
The program, set to be held at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 27 in the Kenneth Shadowen Performing Arts Center at Marshall County High School, is open to area church representatives to participate. MCSO issued a letter of invitation to about 80 Marshall County churches – those the department could find an address listed – for the event. However, Byars said the training was open to all local church representatives, as well as those beyond the county line.
“We have done, sporadically over the last few years, if a church calls us (and says), ‘hey, what do we need to do?’ We’ll go out and help them,” Byars said. “But this last week or so we’ve really gotten inundated with it and decided let’s do it on a large scale and capture as many as possible. … We did it to the churches inside Marshall County, but there are some associations that have contacted us that are outside, and we said, ‘Yeah, you’re more than welcome to come.’ We’re not going to turn anybody away.”
It’s something area churches have been looking for, as well. Byars said MCSO had received numerous calls after the Sutherland Springs shooting, looking for information and response training. While some local congregations have security teams in place, Byars said many did not and those that did would still benefit from that training.
Blood River Baptist Association Director of Missions Mark E. Sickling hopes that is the case. Sickling said the association had made certain its member churches were aware of the session; he, too, plans to personally attend the seminar.
“What I hope to get out of it is a better idea of what we can tell our individual 47 churches, most of which are the size of the church in Texas that was the scene of the massacre, what they can do – a congregation of 40-50 people – what steps can they take to make themselves feel safer and yet still be open to have guests and visitors that they have never met before enter into their sanctuaries, enter into their churches, and be welcome for worship,” Sickling said.
It’s a real concern for many that incidents like that in Sutherland Springs or the June 15, 2015, Charleston, S.C., incident during which convicted murderer Dylann Roof shot and killed nine churchgoers in a racially-motivated attack after the congregation had welcomed him in to study the Bible with them, will close the church off to those who need it.
“It is an issue, that we will unfortunately, some churches will deal with, as a result of what has taken place,” Sickling said. “We will look at strangers differently and with more skepticism, and that’s unfortunate.”
Sickling said he hoped that congregations would bear in mind what Jesus would do in a given situation, however, and to give people the benefit of the doubt.
“My advice would be to keep an open hand, keep an open door, to love people in both word and deed as Jesus has taught us to do in scripture,” Sickling said. “Jesus sent his disciples out, he said, ‘Be wise and watch out for the serpent.’ So, we have to do both.
“… Jesus taught that as his followers, as Christians and followers of Jesus Christ, that we are held in his hands,” Sickling added. “He said, ‘No one can snatch you out of my father’s hands.’ Our eternal security is safe. Can someone come into our church, our home and kill us? Yes. But our eternal life is secure. As far as safety goes, we live in a dangerous world, yes. But our lord loves us and he is sovereign, and I think he wants to take care of his children; he wants to take care of his sheep. That doesn’t mean we won’t have accidents. That doesn’t mean we won’t have crazy people do crazy things. In my personal opinion I don’t lay awake at night worrying that somebody’s going to break into my home or break into my church and shoot me and kill me. I hope people will just come to that realization. Live your life; don’t live it in fear.”
MCSO Maj. David Maddox, School Resource Officer Ray Chumbler and Deputy Dennis Lewis are preparing the curriculum for Monday’s session. Maddox is a longtime member of the tactical team, and Chumbler was formerly on the tactical team. In addition, Chumbler and Lewis are both firearms instructors, and Lewis is also a trained active shooter scenario instructor.
“I feel like it will be a very helpful, in depth training,” Byars said. “Maybe help some of the area churches to – if they don’t have a security team – maybe this will help start it up.”