So far this year there have been over 50 school shootings in the United States, and New Mexico State University Police are hoping to prepare students if there is ever an active killer situation on campus.
NMSU Police Chief Stephen Lopez says he has been putting on active killer workshops for different departments for years, and requests have been rising.
“Over the last two years,” Lopez said. “The requests have really grown, so now we are doing this on average once every two weeks.”
Lopez says an active killer situation is not limited to a shooter; there could be explosives or any other weapon that could be used to inflict harm. He says if possible they try to identify and stop threat before there is an active killer situation.
“Our ideal situation is that somebody will spot something suspicious or an activity they think is suspicious,” Lopez said. “And call an report it, so that we have a chance to stop an incident before there is any violence. That’s the ideal. We don’t want anyone getting hurt, and if we can we want those people calling in when they hear something sounds wrong, or they see something that looks wrong, so that we have a chance to keep everybody safe.”
Lopez says they have a team called CARE made up of officers and psychologists who are trained to assess the threats that are reported. If they are unable to prevent a situation, he says it’s good for people to have knowledge of the university’s policy.
“Run, Hide, Fight has become the go to standard across the United States,” Lopez said. “Not only do we advocate it, but the FBI, homeland security really encourage people to use that. Because the first thing you can do to get to safety as quickly as possible is to run. Sticking around in a danger zone is not good, unless you have no other alternative. Running is critical, if you can’t run then being able to hide in a place that protects you from a threat is the second best option.”
Lopez says if hiding, try to close and lock the door. If your door won’t lock do you best to stop it from opening using a door stop, ropes, cables, or whatever you have available.
“As a last resort,” Lopez said. “If you can’t run or hide, then you may be left with the fighting and we believe that it’s important for people to understand what that fighting really entails, so they can do it if they need to when their life’s on the line.”
Lopez says the best place to try to hit someone is the head or the neck, which will give you the best chance to incapacitate the killer. He says if you are in this kind of situation the best thing to do is follow your instincts.
“We all have known danger since we were little kids,” Lopez said. “Whether it was a stray dog chasing us, whether it was a car coming towards us as we were crossing the street, and that’s kind of built into all of us some self-preservation instincts. And so, as adults common sense is a really good guide, if you know the danger based on the sound of gunshots or explosions is to your left, you know not to go to your left, you know to go to your right.”
Lopez says they hope to do several more of these workshops at different times and different campuses to make sure the public has the tools they need to stay safe.
