Officer Sean Mahabir Trains on How to Respond to an Active Shooter Situation
On Thursday, July 14, the South Tampa Chamber of Commerce hosted Officer Sean Mahabir’s Active Shooter Training at the Stageworks Theater. Officer Mahabir is in the Special Incident Management Unit (SIMU) at the Tampa Police Department. This active shooter training included the signs to look for when spotting a potential active shooter, situational awareness, actions to take in an active shooter situation, law enforcement response, prevention, and ended with a Q&A session.
Unfortunately, active shooter situations are becoming more and more prevalent within today’s society. Officer Mahabir explains that there is about 1 active shooter situation occurring every three weeks and 60% of active shooter situations transpire in places of active commerce. Therefore, due to its high frequency in public places, it is essential to remain well informed on the procedures of handling these situations. Officer Mahabir began with sharing the definition of an active shooter. This is an individual that is actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and over-populated area. In most cases, active shooters use firearms with no pattern or method when choosing their victims. Officer Mahabir explained that active shooters do not simply snap. He shared that 93% of shooter plan out their attacks and that 61% of shooters are motivated by the desire of revenge.
With that being said, shooters are constantly showing signs and seeking attention; it is when that need for attention is not met, that these individuals will resort to violence. Officer Mahabir continued to describe characteristics and personality traits observed in active shooters. He pointed out certain red flags to look out for at home, in public, or at the workplace. These red flags include depression and withdraw, resistance and overreactions to changes in policies/procedures, noticeably unstable emotional reactions, increasingly sharing problems occurring at home, as well as escalated domestic problems within the workplace. Additionally, an FBI statistic states that 30% of active shooters work at the business being targeted and 68% knew someone at the business. Thus, if you are suspicious or uncomfortable, make sure that you report your observations and feelings to human resources. In order to achieve the prevention of a possible active shooter, it is vital that if you see something, say something.
DON’T FORGET: Run. Hide. Fight. If possible, the first action to take is to run and escape. Make sure that you are always spotting exit signs wherever you are located. This is in order to avoid being stuck with nowhere to escape. Also, do not call 911 unless you are in a safe location because if the shooter hears you on the phone, it will put you in immense risk. If you are unable to run and escape, the second step is to find a safe place that can be used to block yourself in case the gunman decides to shoot. If you are unable to hide or if you are able to commit to action, your next step is to fight. If you decide to commit to action, you will have to improvise weapons. This could be items such as a tape dispenser, water bottle, etc. can be thrown in order to distract the shooter. Being resourceful will give you time to either detain the shooter or to escape. Therefore, it is extremely important to be mentally and physically prepared when committing to action during an active shooter situation.
Officer Mahabir clearly demonstrated his passion for maintaining the highest level of safety through sharing his specialized knowledge as well as raising awareness. Thanks to him, the audience was able to learn how to prepare and handle an active shooter situation if ever faced with one at the business or in other areas. Officer Mahabir offers his training to businesses will show businesses which parts of their office will be the safest to stay and hide behind during an active shooter situation. With the randomness of active shooter situations, it is wise to prepare your business for any potential harm.
For more information about scheduling Active Shooter Training with Officer Mahabir, please contact him here: [email protected]
Also, be sure to watch and share RUN.HIDE.FIGHT.
Categorized in: Work
This post was written by Elevate, Inc.
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