Just days before the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, around 20 Malibu residents attended a town hall to discuss surviving and preparing for such violence that has metastasized throughout our country.
Many of us cannot imagine an act of mass violence happening close to home, but reports of Malibu residents and other Southern Californians being present for the attack in Las Vegas on Sunday, Oct. 1, made the threat of violence seem as immediate as it ever has.
As many remember, in 2013 there was a deadly shooting at nearby Santa Monica College. Five people died in that incident that started off-campus and ended with the gunman being shot in the college library.
Malibu’s own Public Safety Manager, Susan Dueñas, knows all too well how an act of terrorism can happen at seemingly any time. She had just finished running the 2013 Boston Marathon when two bombs went off, killing three and injuring scores of others. Fortunately, she escaped unharmed. Dueñas had already been working for years in terrorism response planning, but said, “I never thought I’d be in a terrorist attack, actually.”
Because she understands the danger first-hand, Dueñas arranged a Malibu town hall meeting Thursday night to deal with the sobering topic of mass violence with local experts giving tips on how to be prepared and survive the unthinkable. Unfortunately, unlike the previous full-capacity town hall on fire prevention, Thursday evening’s event was sparsely attended with only about 20 people in auditorium—and many of them members of Malibu’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).
However, the speakers were anxious to give advice and share their knowledge about keeping vigilant and safe. One of the speakers was 31-year Fire Department veteran Captain Roland Sprewell who is an anti-terrorism expert and works with the Joint Regional Intelligence Center. The JRIC is a special operations, tactics and planning group comprised of local, state and federal law enforcement throughout Southern California. Its job is to share information and spot trends that could threaten the safety landscape. The group does assessments and analysis of terrorist incidents to “learn a great deal” about prevention. He mentioned work on trying to crack encrypted networks on “the dark web” used by terrorist organizations.
Another speaker and expert on mass shootings was Erik Franco, an LA County Sheriff Reserve Deputy, who along with being an EMT works in global crisis management for major companies developing game plans for active shooter incidents. He called Sandy Hook a “game changer.”
“We can’t control what will happen,” Franco said, “only our response.”
Franco gave practical tips on how to save lives during a shooting event. First, he stressed to be “hyper aware” and report suspicious activity. Then, in the event of a shooting, “run, hide and even fight an active shooter.”
Franco’s tips were to silence cell phones during an attack so a shooter can’t find you, run from the scene empty handed so police don’t mistakenly fire during a panicked, rushed situation, know an exit route or fortify a hiding place. As a last-ditch effort, he suggested attacking a gunman (hopefully as a group), going for vulnerable spots such as the eyes or nose.
Franco assured the few in attendance that first responders are well trained to protect the public. Many police and fire departments train overnight at airports and other public spaces, he explained. But, Franco did caution the number of shooting incidents is on the rise and in the worst-case scenario he went as far as suggesting people buy and learn to use tourniquets, stating that it takes four to eight minutes to bleed to death and that it could take more minutes until help arrives.
“If you have the right tools at the right time, you can save more lives than you think,” Franco stressed.
Los Angeles Assistant Fire Chief Anthony Williams said many safety measures are invisible to those who aren’t looking out for them. He explained cities are becoming proactive with tactics such as installing bollards to deter vehicles from ramming into crowded areas.
“These are things you don’t see that cities are doing to keep us safe,” Williams said, adding, “Cities are sharing information to lessen threats. It’s a unified front.”
Dueñas commented on the empty seats, compared to the earlier fire preparedness town hall.
“I think because fire seems more real to people. It’s happened here. They have experience with it,” Dueñas said. “This topic I know is a tough one. I’m not surprised. It’s scary.
“It seems far away like, ‘It’s not going to happen to me,’” she continued. “I know that to be not true since it happened to me and I never imagined it would. I didn’t want that to stop me from doing this, because why do we have to wait for something bad to happen to talk about it?”
It can only be speculated whether turnout would have been higher had the meeting been scheduled just one week later.