Annapolis Fire Chief David Stokes has served over 40 years in public safety. He is the only person to have served as fire chief of both the Annapolis Fire Department and the Anne Arundel Fire Department.
I’ve been to many different forums with the chief where people have asked him “Chief, what is it that keeps you up at night?” His response is always “active shooters.” The chief’s nightmare is well placed.
Year after year, month after month and lately week after week media coverage of active assailant incidents have invaded our daily consciousness.
There is no widely accepted definition that describes this behavior. An active shooter and active assailant are terms that describe an individual who is actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people.
An active shooter or active assailant becomes a mass shooter when the number of injured or killed reach four with no cooling off period. These active shooter situations are unpredictable and evolve quickly. Usually, there is no pattern or method on how the shooter selects their victims.
The year 2018 has been a heartbreaking year for active shooting incidents. In an article called “The terrible numbers that grow with each mass shooting” The Washington Post chronicles the horrific carnage of 2018:
The April 20, 1999, mass shooting at Columbine High School in Jefferson County Colorado was a game changer for America’s first responder community. Their goal was to actively kill as many people as possible.
Responding law enforcement surrounded the building, and set up a perimeter while waiting for SWAT teams to assemble. The lack of engagement with the assailants by law enforcement allowed the two shooters to continue their killing spree unchecked. They eventually killed 13 people and injured 24 people before they committed suicide.
Thursday, law enforcement uses small entry teams to immediately enter active assailant situations to stop the threat. In order to minimize death and injury, they will bypass fleeing victims and the injured in their attempt to neutralize the assailant.
Additionally, EMS and police teams called the Rescue Task Force will work together in semi-secure areas to expedite medical treatment that increases the survivability of the injured. These tactics were deployed at the Capital Gazette newsroom shooting which undoubtedly limited the amount of life loss.
The Annapolis Fire Department, the Annapolis Police Department and the Annapolis Office of Emergency Management have begun extensive active assailant training with public safety personnel.
Chief Stokes along with Police Chief Scott Baker have formed an Active Assailant Planning Team. The team is charged with providing aggressive and realistic training in order to efficiently manage an active assailant incident, neutralize, capture or kill the active shooter(s), minimize the number of fatalities, expeditiously treat the injured and reunite other victims with families through the reunification process.
The team will also be reviewing our existing policies and procedures and make recommendations based on best practices.
These efforts are fully supported by Mayor Gavin Buckley, and the Public Safety Committee, which consists of Alderwoman Rhonda Pindell-Charles, Alderwoman Shanika Henson and Alderman Fred Paone.
Thursday afternoon will be our second active assailant exercise this year. There will be 70-plus community volunteers who will act as victims and evacuees.
We certainly appreciate their participation. Many of our response partners, to include the Health Department and the Department of Social Services, will also be participating and exercising their roles today.
Finally, see the bottom of this page. They are five more reasons why this training is so important. We will never forget.
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![Xxxxx The chaos in the country and our nation baffles and depresses me. How did we get to this state? I have a couple of questions, things to think about. Free speech has been this nations strength. But free speech carries with it responsibility. It requires dialogue. It requires respect for divergent opinions. It requires substance in explaining opinions. The college protests I have witnessed has none of these elements. “Death to America” “Kill the Zionists” carries with it the intent to divide and cause civil unrest.is it irresponsible free speech? Let’s see , Palestinians attacked Israel , Killed and kidknapped , […]](https://www.capitalgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/2023/05/17/562XNWQVXNCZXFL3XE5XL7WWU4.jpg?w=535 "Xxxxx The chaos in the country and our nation baffles and depresses me. How did we get to this state? I have a couple of questions, things to think about. Free speech has been this nations strength. But free speech carries with it responsibility. It requires dialogue. It requires respect for divergent opinions. It requires substance in explaining opinions. The college protests I have witnessed has none of these elements. “Death to America” “Kill the Zionists” carries with it the intent to divide and cause civil unrest.is it irresponsible free speech? Let’s see , Palestinians attacked Israel , Killed and kidknapped , […]")
