‘We have to learn to prepare’: Church leaders get active shooter preparedness training

Rather than giving retroactive prayers, church leaders throughout the Las Vegas Valley are hoping to take a proactive approach to protecting their congregation from threats such as active shooters.

Dozens gathered at the Tabernacle of Praise Church on Saturday for active shooter preparedness training given by the Metropolitan Police Department in partnership with the Nevada Black Police Association.

“We’re living in times where a lot of people are attacking religious establishments, and most religious establishments just know about praying,” said Brian Sanders, a 65-year-old former police officer who now has a security company in Las Vegas.

“We have to learn to prepare,” he said.

First line of defense

Many leaders in their communities stressed the need to train their security teams at churches across the valley.

“They will be the first line of defense should anyone come,” said Michael Jackson, the 70-year-old pastor of the Tabernacle of Praise Church.

Training church security teams is what inspired the church to hold this event, but they ultimately decided to open it up to the community.

“Most of us, unless we’ve been sleeping somewhere under a rock, understand the threat that innocent businesses, schools, churches, sort of everybody,” are facing, Jackson said.

He doesn’t feel that churches are specifically targeted, he said, and the Tabernacle of Praise Church has not had to endure an active shooter in the past.

But, “it’s better to have that training and not need it than to need it and not have it,” Jackson said.

Nuts and bolts

Metro officer Michael Childs began the training with a discussion about how community members can identify and report suspicious activity, helping police to investigate.

“We don’t live in your communities,” Childs said. “We’re not in your houses of worship all the time. We can’t be everywhere.”

Childs shared a guide with attendees on indicators of extremist mobilization, highlighting warning signs ranging from isolating from family to unusual goodbyes or post-death instructions.

Any suspicious activity can be reported to the Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center by phone at 702-828-7777 or through the suspicious activity report form online at SNCTC.org, Childs said.

While 73-year-old former police officer Pat Koehler said that this information resonated with him, as a member of his church’s worship team, he was there for the “nuts and bolts” of what actually happens if an active shooter comes to a place of worship.

These nuts and bolts are run, hide and fight, according to Adrian Hunt, president of the Nevada Black Police Association. These are the three main options that someone has in an active shooter situation.

Time for change

Shirley Gee, a 65-year-old former trustee at the Second Baptist Church, attended the training alongside members of her church’s security team.

In the training, she told Childs she was worried about making her security team a target and asked him whether or not security guards should be incognito.

“If I’m the bad guy, and I see somebody’s arm and it says security, that’s going to be my first target,” Childs said. He stressed that each church decides their own regulations, and Metro can only give recommendations.

Childs urged every church to create an emergency response plan and be aware of who among their leadership carries a concealed firearm.

Head Deacon Doyle Jefferson, 65, and Assistant Deacon Samuel Dailey, 71, are also incognito when working as security guards at the Tabernacle of Praise Church.

At the church, visitors will not know who the security guards placed among them are.

Several church leaders said they will be rethinking their security processes after the training, which Metro said they will provide free of charge to any house of worship who requests it.

“It’s time for change for all of our sanctuaries, given that we have so many shootings going on in our churches,” Gee said.

Contact Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com.