Expert: Active Shooter Situations Can Easily Confuse Police
Active shooter incidents can be difficult for police officers. Events unfold in seconds and often end tragically. In Hoover on Thanksgiving night at the Riverchase Galleria, police shot and killed 21-year-old Emantic “EJ” Bradford Jr. Initially, they said he was the gunman in a shooting that left two wounded. They then backtracked and said the real gunman is still at large. State University of New York at Oswego criminal justice professor Jaclyn Schildkraut studies active shooter situations. She spoke with WBHM’s Andrew Yeager.
Interview Highlights
How police are trained to deal with active shooters:
“There’s a lot of confusion. There’s obviously a lot of people. People running every different direction or you could have people hiding all over the place. At that point what they’re going to be listening out for is the sounds of the gunfire in determining where in the building it’s coming from so that they can get to the perpetrator as quickly as possible and neutralize whether that is killing the perpetrator, taking them into custody, either with or without wounding them, but essentially bringing the event to a close as quickly as possible.”
What’s different about the Hoover shooting:
“There sort of one three outcomes that usually happens in these cases. That is either the perpetrator’s going to commit suicide. They’re going to basically get into a shootout with the police officers and either get wounded or basically suicide by cop. Or they’re just going to give themselves up, obviously, which is the least common. So to have a situation where the shooter is unknown and has a escaped the scene is very, very rare.”
How the “good guy with a gun” factor affects active shooter incidents:
“It puts those individuals actually at danger. There’s research that shows that when a person pulls a gun in a crime scene or there is a gun present in a crime situation that the likelihood of somebody getting injured increases fourfold … When police officers are arriving on a scene, they don’t know that that individual is a good guy with a gun. All they see is a person with a gun. And so [that] increases the risk of accidental shootings in terms of that good samaritan being injured by police because in that high-stakes, high-stress situation you’re trying to shoot to kill if somebody puts up a gun at you.”
Photo by kcdsTM 
Postal traffic to US drops more than 80% after trade exemption rule ends, UN agency says
The de minimis rule that allowed small packages worth less than $800 to be exempt from tariffs ended on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025.
Colombia’s lone Amazon port faces drying river and rising tensions with Peru
Colombia's only Amazon port town could soon be cut off from the river that keeps it alive. As drought and a shifting river spark a tense border dispute with Peru, locals are scrambling to adapt—and politicians are raising flags, literally.
Sunday Puzzle: Common denominator
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe plays the puzzle with Weekend Edition puzzlemaster Will Shortz along with listener Cynthia Rose of Littleton, Colorado.
South Korea says it has reached a deal with the US for the release of workers in a Georgia plant
More than 300 South Korean workers were detained in an immigration raid on Thursday. Presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik said South Korea plans to send a charter plane to bring the workers home.
Hitch a ride to the moon in a rusty old car and ‘The Couch in the Yard’
As the sun sets in a small town, a family loads up their rusty old car with the spare couch in their yard. When it breaks down in the mountains, what else is there to do but fly it to the moon?
The silent killer increases your risk of stroke and dementia. Here’s how to control it
New recommendations for early treatment for hypertension to prevent strokes, heart attacks and dementia come as an experimental medication is shown to lower blood pressure in hard to treat patients.
