Mid-Missouri police chief explains school shooter police response

The year is already off to a deadly start for schools across America.

Wednesday’s school shooting in Broward County, Florida is one of several incidents already in 2018.

“I think this is a shame that this has become our almost everyday norm,” said Holts Summit Assistant Police Chief Shannon Jeffries. “This is something that we just need to learn to fight. And it’s not just law enforcement, but all school staff, churches and community together. We’ve all got to learn how to fight this.”

Jeffries, a certified active shooter instructor, leads training for law enforcement, schools and churches in mid-Missouri.

Jeffries explained the arriving officers’ first response is to find the threat.

“We’ve come to find out that this stuff is pretty time sensitive,” he said. “From the first shot fired, they’re done within minutes. We know we have to take corrective action within that time frame.”

Students could be seen coming out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with their hands in the air. Jeffries said it’s typical for officers to order people to show their hands in these situations.

“Having their hands put up is common practice because you don’t know how detailed the plan was,” he said. “We don’t know if there’s a secondary shooter among the crowd.”

Jeffries said giving officers clear information on the shooter is helpful in sometimes chaotic scenes.

“Some of these school campuses are very large, so if we can narrow that search from the beginning of this, it makes it a whole lot easier.”