This week, the FBI has reported a 50-percent increase in active shooter events in 2021 over 2020. This came the day before another mass shooting — this time in Uvalde Texas. The FBI reported that there were 61 active shooter incidents in 2021 nationwide with 103 people killed and 140 injured, not including the shooter.
Sgt. Anna Gray of the Evansville Police Department said there have been no active shooter situations or credible threats to schools in recent years.
“We had someone actually call in and say they were inside of a school and that they were going to harm a bunch of students," she said. "Basically we treated that as a full blown active threat situation. You know, officers went in immediately everybody was evacuated. And then once we cleared the entire school, it was determined that no one had been inside it was basically just a false call.”
Gray said the department uses the phrase ‘active threat’ to include assailants with guns, knives or bombs.
She says they teach schools and business staff the ALICE training method which includes barricading themselves in, but also fighting back if needed. It stands for alert, lockdown/barricade, inform, counter and evacuate.
Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding said that while one-on-one shootings are frequent in Evansville, there have been no ‘active shooter’ situations in recent years.
“Within the past month or so we had a subject in a hotel room that discharged a weapon close to 20 rounds, including out the front door of the hotel, while our deputies for their answering a complaint," he said. "So shootings of all types occur on a fairly regular basis, which is sad to say."
He said he's like to see the judicial system and the legislators enforce current gun laws, with increased penalties for people who "disobey the laws for owning and possessing firearms and are committing crimes with firearms," he said.
Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation spokesperson Jason Woebkenberg provided this statement about the tragedy in Uvalde Texas.
“Our thoughts go out to the Uvalde Texas community following yesterday’s senseless tragedy. Multiple security measures and deterrents are in place throughout our school district. For obvious reasons we do not comment on the specific details of our security plans.
We are grateful to have the ongoing support of EVSC PD, Evansville Police Department and the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office. We can only hope our nation has the will and determination to find effective ways to end these horrific acts of violence.”