The Statesboro Police Department gave free presentations at the Statesboro Police Station last Wednesday and Friday on how to survive if you find yourself threatened by an active shooter.

The presentation, “Tips on Surviving the Active Shooter” was developed by Statesboro Police Department’s Training Bureau Lieutenant Kaleb Moore and presented by Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Sneed Collins.

Collins has served with the Statesboro Police Department for five years, and both he and Lieutenant Moore have served on the Department’s Emergency Response Team–Statesboro’s SWAT team equivalent.

The Statesboro Police Department’s goal with this presentation was to educate the public on how to survive or even prevent active shooter situations.

Collins stressed the need for a program such as this to inform and prepare people on what to do during an attack.

“Just because you prepare for something doesn’t mean it’s going to happen,” Collins said. “But if we are taking the steps to ensure safety for everybody, that’s the important thing to me. I want everybody to be on the same page so that if something were to happen…we can save as many lives as we can.”

An active shooter, as defined by the presentation, is a person who attacks a confined and highly populated area, such as a school or mall, with the intent to kill as many people as possible.

A shooter is almost impossible to identify before they actually carry out the attack, so the presentation focuses on key survival strategies such as where to run or hide, what to do once rescue arrives and even how to fight the shooter yourself.

The presentation explained ways of attempting to identify a potential shooter, proper ways to react to wounded victims and how to respond to law enforcement back up.

A training video developed by the Department of Homeland Security titled “RUN. HIDE. FIGHT. Surviving an Active Shooter event” (available on YouTube) was also included. This particularly graphic video depicts an active shooting and goes over the three methods to survive it.

Potential situations like this are no light matter for the Police Department. Last December, a masked person was seen roaming the Math and Physics building on GSU’s campus. Police locked down and searched the building while Eagle Alerts urged students to stay indoors and avoid campus. While the masked man turned out to be a graduate student playing a prank, this goes to show how serious law enforcement is when it comes to active shooter situations.

“It’s a scary thing to even think about,” Collins said. “Especially when you think about how many cops here have families and kids that go to schools.”

“If an active shooter happens at a school…it could be the cop’s kid in there,” said Collins. “It’s not as much a motivation to stop a bad guy as it is to help people.”