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 
Bob Weir, guitarist and founding member of the Grateful Dead, has died at 78
For three decades with the Grateful Dead and three more after the group ended following the 1995 death of his bandmate Jerry Garcia, Weir helped build and sustain the band's legacy across generations.
Nationwide anti-ICE protests call for accountability after Renee Good’s death
Activist organizations are planning at least 1,000 protests and vigils this weekend. Officials in major cities cast Saturday's demonstrations as largely peaceful.
Veteran actor T.K. Carter, known for ‘The Thing’ and ‘Punky Brewster,’ dies at 69
T.K. Carter gained fame as Nauls the cook in John Carpenter's 1982 horror classic, "The Thing."
Who is Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Crown Prince encouraging demonstrations across Iran?
In exile for nearly 50 years, Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has issued calls urging Iranians to join protests sweeping the country. But support for him may not be clear cut.
US launches new retaliatory strikes against ISIS in Syria after deadly ambush
The U.S. has launched another round of strikes against the Islamic State in Syria. This follows last month's ambush that killed two U.S. soldiers and an American civilian interpreter.
6 killed in Mississippi shooting rampage, authorities say
The alleged gunman, 24, has been charged with murder after the Friday shootings in northeast Mississippi. The victims include his father, uncle, brother and a 7-year-old relative, authorities said.
