A teenage male with a rifle, dressed all in black, tried to enter a Catholic church in Abbeville, LA Saturday as 60 children were receiving their first communion. I have footage from the event and a full debrief that includes tips and training so you can prevent this from occurring at your church. Watch the full video breakdown below.
Keith; I know you will follow up with more details. Who the heck is he? Who intercepted/disarmed him? Did this Catholic church have security present? Thank you again for your timely updates, of course we are next store to LA. haven't heard a word of this.
Let me preface this with I'm looking at it from a military perspective.
In any emergency situation, the congregation is automatically going to look to the pastor for guidance. I am not encouraging unsafe behavior, but if there is no active shooter actually happening, hiding behind the pulpit is going to give everyone the impression that he is scared (weak) when he needs to be strong. In this situation, a better approach is to have a security person escort the pastor off the stage and into the wings. This gets him out of harms way (especially since that table probably provides a total of 2 layers of cloth for protection) while still allowing him to quickly direct everyone in the process.
We are going to have a training on the active shooter with our local PD. It is going to be the PowerPoint type of training. Our church leadership does not seem to endorse about live fire training for the security team. It is sad that but it is what it is. Some of us are willing to pay for the training and be trained on our own money. We love our church and we love God. I just want to make sure I am up to the skill level to be armed to protect.
Our team is allowed to live fire train. But we must pay our own way, which is fine. The issue we have is the upper leadership is not as serious about it as they should be, so we are more like allowed to exist than encouraged to. Fortunately, the members do take this seriously.
I believe it is like that in many churches. We have to endure while doing our best to educate them day by day. I know, we do not wish to be reactive, but proactive. Why wait until something happens even though it already has…
Keith; I know you will follow up with more details. Who the heck is he? Who intercepted/disarmed him? Did this Catholic church have security present? Thank you again for your timely updates, of course we are next store to LA. haven't heard a word of this.
Thanks for all that you do for us! Looking forward to learning how the suspect was sighted, engaged, disarmed & taken into custody!
Keith, Thank you for what you do for God's family.
your body want go where your mind hasn't been. Thanks Keith
Thanks for all that you are doing brother! I have been sharing with my network and with Serve Source…
Thank you Mr. Graves.
Thank you Brother!!!! First layer of protection is crucial!!!
Let me preface this with I'm looking at it from a military perspective.
In any emergency situation, the congregation is automatically going to look to the pastor for guidance. I am not encouraging unsafe behavior, but if there is no active shooter actually happening, hiding behind the pulpit is going to give everyone the impression that he is scared (weak) when he needs to be strong. In this situation, a better approach is to have a security person escort the pastor off the stage and into the wings. This gets him out of harms way (especially since that table probably provides a total of 2 layers of cloth for protection) while still allowing him to quickly direct everyone in the process.
We are going to have a training on the active shooter with our local PD. It is going to be the PowerPoint type of training. Our church leadership does not seem to endorse about live fire training for the security team. It is sad that but it is what it is. Some of us are willing to pay for the training and be trained on our own money. We love our church and we love God. I just want to make sure I am up to the skill level to be armed to protect.
Our team is allowed to live fire train. But we must pay our own way, which is fine. The issue we have is the upper leadership is not as serious about it as they should be, so we are more like allowed to exist than encouraged to. Fortunately, the members do take this seriously.
I believe it is like that in many churches. We have to endure while doing our best to educate them day by day. I know, we do not wish to be reactive, but proactive. Why wait until something happens even though it already has…
Keep in there and keep praying!