When you have a job as an armed security guard, an active shooting in your patrol location is the last call you ever want to get over your radio. However, this is also an opportunity for you to react quickly and end the threat before it makes national headlines for all the wrong reasons. In this situation, it's easy to be so focused on identifying and taking down the shooter that you fail to assess whether he or she has an accomplice — and making this mistake could cost you your life. Here are some ways that you can identify if the shooter has an accomplice on the scene.
Look Away From The Shooter
Although shooters who attack in pairs can use a wide range of strategies, you'll often find that they split up upon entering the building and starting to shoot. If you know that shots are coming from one part of the building, you may be trained in that area — but you shouldn't neglect to look in other directions, too. While avoiding losing focus on where the primary shooter might be, you should watch the areas away from the shooter to see if someone else is carrying a firearm but hasn't used it yet.
Identify Suspects By Their Attire
Mass shooters commonly wear military-style clothing — tactical pants, military boots, tactical vests, and more. In many cases, this attire is dark. Although this won't always be the case, you should scan the people around you to identify a second suspect who may have yet to reveal himself or herself. For example, an accomplice may be wearing a long coat, but you can see military boots and tactical pants below the coat's cuff. And, perhaps this person is wearing a military-style backpack. You'll want to thoroughly assess this individual to ensure that he or she isn't a threat.
Assess Peoples' Behavior
In a mass shooting, you'll usually find that people are either fleeing or frozen in fear. Be quick to survey the people you can see to assess how they're behaving. If someone appears strangely calm or focused, for example, this is an unusual reaction to such a chaotic situation. Someone behaving in this manner may indeed be an accomplice of the primary shooter and could begin to target people at any time. Keeping your eye out for a second shooter can be a key step that you take as an armed security guard. Identifying a suspect and disarming him or her can be pivotal to preventing further bloodshed.
For more information and training, contact a security jobs training company.