{"id":9113,"date":"2016-08-11T00:41:46","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T04:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=9113"},"modified":"2016-08-11T00:41:46","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T04:41:46","slug":"are-bricks-businesses-prepared-for-an-active-shooter-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2016\/08\/are-bricks-businesses-prepared-for-an-active-shooter-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Brick’s Businesses Prepared for an Active Shooter Incident?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brick<\/a>

Brick Police Detective Tim McCarthy addresses business owners on active shooter preparation. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

With the primary national terrorism threat having evolved from grand-scale attacks, such as those on Sept. 11, 2001, to \u201clone wolf\u201d mayhem such as the deadly shooting at a nightclub in Orlando,\u00a0local places of business have become the new venues for perpetrators.<\/p>\n

Long before the era of ISIS, Brick had its first taste of an active shooter scenario. In March 1987, Luis Rosa took a township police officer\u2019s gun and drove to the Dee Rose furniture store<\/a> on Brick Boulevard, where he\u00a0shot two people \u2013 his girlfriend and her new boyfriend \u2013 before killing himself. The man who was shot, John Brinker, a salesman at the store, died.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attacks on the general public and the business community are becoming way too common,\u201d said Brick Police Detective Tim McCarthy, who led a presentation Wednesday night on how business owners can prepare for such an incident. \u201cWe train the schools to protect children, but in the business community, it\u2019s up to the business owner how to protect themselves, their customers and their employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy, an 18-year veteran of the department, leads the agency\u2019s counter-terrorism efforts. He has also taken the lead in training the township\u2019s schools on how to handle an active shooter crisis. In light of the recent attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, as well as the terrorism-linked shooting in San Bernadino, Calif. earlier this week, the focus has evolved\u00a0to cover places of business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of these lone wolf offenders, and they\u2019re a little bit harder to find,\u201d said McCarthy. \u201cThey live in the shadows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent events \u2013 especially those involving the so-called \u201clone wolves\u201d \u2013 show that mass shootings can occur anywhere, even a location such as Brick that is relatively removed from cities such as Philadelphia and New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just the big cities where we have these incidents,\u201d said Chief James Riccio. \u201cIf you look at what\u2019s been in the news, it\u2019s a lot of the small towns that are seeing these scenarios.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday night\u2019s presentation was sponsored by the township\u2019s Chamber of Commerce, which invited\u00a0business owners to\u00a0the Brick PAL building for the free, hour-long program. McCarthy, drawing on countless hours of homeland security and counter-terrorism training, gave some pointers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the incidents end in five minutes, and some end within two minutes,\u201d McCarthy said, emphasizing that shooters rarely plan out their attacks beyond the simple act of brandishing a weapon and firing. To that end, a prepared civilian can play a role in saving lives or disrupting the perpetrator\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cCivilians often have to make life and death decisions, so therefore, they should be involved in training and discussions on decisions they may face,\u201d McCarthy added.<\/p>\n

Workers and customers in businesses should first be aware of their surroundings by taking a glance at potential exits or even large objects which could be used to hide in the event of an emergency, or a shield in case bullets begin to fly. Experts say civilians should take three steps in the event of an active shooting incident: escape, hide or fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways try to escape or evacuate first,\u201d said McCarthy.<\/p>\n

If there is no way out of the building, hide, he said.\u00a0Try to secure a hiding place as fast as possible. Silence cell phones, turn off lights. Conceal yourself behind large objects that may protect you if shots are fired in your direction.<\/p>\n

If there is no way to escape and nowhere to hide, a civilian may find that he or she will have to active fight off the shooter. A last resort, fighting can come at a steep price, and should be acted on in a smart manner.<\/p>\n

Act with aggression and improvise weapons, said McCarthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommit to taking the shooter down no matter what,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is where we have a lot of our issues. You have to make that determination as to whether you can actually do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civilians should also understand police procedures during such an attack. McCarthy said the first group of responders to enter a building will not stop to render aid to the wounded. Their aim, he said, is to stop the shooter before he has the opportunity to injure anyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second wave of responders will take care of the injured, so help is on the way,\u201d said McCarthy.<\/p>\n

Business owners were urged to come up with an emergency plan so staff members and customers can escape as easily as possible. But despite some general tips, each scenario is unique.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t tell you exactly what to do,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cEach business is built differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy said the Brick police department will happily work with business owners to come up with an emergency plan for their physical location and give some specialized advice and ideas on how to deal with an active shooter. Interested businesses should contact the department to schedule an appointment.<\/p>\n

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With the primary national terrorism threat having evolved from grand-scale attacks, such as those on Sept. 11, 2001, to \u201clone wolf\u201d mayhem such as the deadly shooting at a nightclub in Orlando,\u00a0local places of business have become the new venues for perpetrators. Long before the era of ISIS, Brick had its first taste of an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1649,3],"tags":[2343,2355,2356,24],"class_list":["post-9113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-business","category-police-fire-courts","tag-active-shooter","tag-active-shooter-drill","tag-active-shooter-training","tag-brick-nj-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/shooter_presentation.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-2mZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}