Violent Intruder Training Response
When confronted with someone who is actively shooting a firearm, your first concern should be your safety and the safety of those around you. Take these steps to get to safety:
Run
- This should be your first and best option if there is an assailant on campus. You might not always have this opportunity but if you get it, take it. Your life depends on it. If you hear gunfire, run in the opposite direction.
Hide
- Find a place where the active shooter can’t find you. Try to barricade yourself in. Call 9-1-1 when you can safely do so and wait for an officer to arrive.
- The gunfire may be so close that you don’t have time to run or react. Once again, your life depends on it.
Fight
- The very worst case scenario is where you cannot run or hide. The assailant may be standing in front of you or headed in your direction. In this case, you have no other choice but to fight for your life. How do you fight?
- Find a weapon of opportunity and use it. A weapon of opportunity might be a chair, stapler, broom handle–anything that you can use to defend yourself.
- Try to take the assailant by surprise
- This is the fight for your life. Your life depends on it.
- Dealing with UPD or any other Police First Responder:
- When police arrive on scene you must understand their primary mission is to stop the assailant. Be very careful how you approach the police. We may not know who the assailant is. Approach with your hands up.