Avoid, deny, defend: Training teaches Lake in the Hills residents about surviving active shooter

Do not try to be John Wick.

Lake in the Hills Officer David DeStefano was quick to warn attendees of an active shooter response training that the purpose of the session was not to make civilians think they could be a superhero, but rather to learn the basics of surviving such a situation.

Tuesday night’s class – called Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events Training – involved several training videos, a case scenario and discussion, led by DeStefano and designed to offer simple but crucial pointers for surviving a traumatic event.

The training, which was organized by DeStefano and the Lake in the Hills Police Department, is based off of a program created in 2002 at Texas State University and did not involve combat or firearm handling but suggested, when faced with the threat of an active shooter, running away – without belongings if necessary – was preferable to playing dead on the ground or hiding.

DeStefano didn’t discuss politics or current events during the training, but attendees described an atmosphere of resigned certainty that preparing for a worst-case scenario is now just part of life in America.

“Unfortunately, this is a reality,” Lake in the Hills resident Joy Huckeby said of active shooter situations. “It’s a shame, and it’d be better if it wasn’t. But it is, so it’s great the village offers this education.”

Another attendee, Algonquin resident Mary Piemonte, said she worked at a food pantry and wanted to know more about what one can do.

“These are things I can share to help protect others,” Piemonte said. “We have to look out for our co-workers’ well being.”

Both Huckeby and PIemonte said this was their first time at such a training.

The videos included security footage of gunmen stalking a convenience store and a student shot during the Virginia Tech massacre recalling lying on the floor as the shooter went through rows in the classroom.

DeStefano’s sister was attending the Jason Aldean concert in Las Vegas in 2017 where 59 were killed, he said.

DeStefano warned that a lot of the material was “tough to deal with” and a big part of the training was just about breaking down the stress and chaos of active shooter situations and offering simple pointers for surviving.

“No matter how many times I teach this class, there are slides when I need to take a breath,” DeStefano said. “Cops have this facade we need to be ironclad, no emotions. But that is not the case. We feel, too.”

One attendee, Justyna Wlodarczyk, said she recently had a situation where her home security system informed her of a break-in; Wlodarczyk said she was so terrified she struggled to give the 911 dispatcher her name or address.

Thankfully, it turned out to be a false alarm, a malfunction of a phone security app, Wlodarczyk said.

In addition to calling 911 and running towards the nearest exit, the program slides warned civilians “not to fight fair” and to go for “the eyes, the throat or the groin” when in close proximity to an active shooter.

The training briefly went into the topic of attacker profiles, but DeStefano cautioned that beyond broad risk factors, spending too much time unpacking the motivations or history of the shooters or showing their picture and name, played into their desire for notoriety or vengeance.

DeStefano said he felt as a police officer he’s seen more incidences of people with mental health or other anxiety issues since the start of the pandemic.

Even before high-profile shootings this year like the ones in Uvalde, Texas, or Highland Park, the FBI issued a report showing that active shooter incidences had gone up over 50% between 2020 and 2021.

Even for instances in which a civilian can be a “good guy with a gun,” DeStefano warned that carrying a weapon was a “huge, huge, huge responsibility” that not only required appropriate training but carried its own risks, like police mistaking them for the shooter when arriving on scene.

“If you don’t know what you are doing, you are not only putting yourself in danger but others as well,” DeStefano said.

DeStefano, who hosts the training every year and will have a separate CRASE event with just Lake in the Hills village staff later this year, said he felt the evening went well and that similar types of trainings, and other put on by the police, allow them to get positive face time with residents.

The village also hosts a safety training series for women and teens, DeStefano said.

“I feel like the only time I am meeting some people are in worst-case scenarios,” DeStefano said. “As officers, we want to meet the community on their good days too.”