Area officials offer advice for attending major events

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Local law-enforcement officials advised people attending events with large crowds to know where the exits are and prepare to take cover.

Speaking the day after a man in Las Vegas killed at least 59 people and wounded more than 500 others at a country music festival, city Police Chief Robin Lees said being aware of exits is a common-sense measure you can use to protect yourself.

In a situation such as the one in Las Vegas, if shooting breaks out, you need to immediately seek out a place to take cover, Lees said.

What makes Sunday’s shooting stand out from others is the shooter was not in the venue itself. Lees said that complicates things for first responders, especially in a place like Las Vegas, which is vast and well lit even at night, making it hard to distinguish muzzle flashes.

Lees’ officers are trained not to call for a SWAT team response if they respond to an active-shooter situation, but to actively seek out the shooter and engage them, even if it means stepping over causalities to do so.

He said if they do not seek out the shooter, there could be more victims.

Todd Werth, supervisory Senior Resident Agent of Youngstown’s FBI office, said the bureau’s efforts to combat mass shootings rely heavily on sourcing information from the mental health community.

“It’s now about a community response,” Werth said.

There has been active-shooter training conducted at local schools and larger venues – including the Covelli Centre – but ideally, Werth said, threats should be identified and mitigated before an event occurs. He likened attending events with large crowds to preparing for adverse weather.

“For any event, it’s about being aware of your surroundings. We live in a very safe society. We don’t live our lives in fear,” Werth said.

Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene echoed Lees’ advice, recommending people who attend events in large crowds know where the exits are and take cover if something happens.

In today’s world, Greene said people need to be cognizant of potential attacks from terrorists both international and domestic.

“Everyone needs to be more diligent and pay attention to their surroundings,” Greene said. “It’s not being unreasonable to ask yourself, ‘What if?’ when you go somewhere with a lot of people.”

Two deputies recently attended active-shooter training in Franklin County, he said. The training focused on teaching the public to turn lights off, barricade doors and get out of exits safely.

Active-shooter training is a drastic change Boardman Police Chief Jack Nichols has noted since coming to the department.

“For the last eight or 10 years, we’ve trained for and rehearsed procedures for what we would do in an active-shooter situation,” he said.

Boardman’s 24-hour marked police vehicles are equipped to make an entry in an instance similar to that of Sunday’s shooting. Each vehicle has sledgehammers, bolt cutters or any other equipment needed to gain entrance to rooms in the case of an active shooter.

“I don’t know if there’s a lot to do to prevent this,” Nichols said. “But we can sure sharpen our skills so that if we ever have to respond to one of these events, we can respond to it quickly.”