The Wrigley Area Neighborhood Alliance invited Long Beach Police Officer Rudy Garcia to attend its Feb. 27 meeting to discuss what to do during an active-shooter situation. The presentation started with a dramatization video of a gunman storming through an office killing bystanders.
Shooter
On Valentine’s Day, a gunman named Nikolas Cruz, armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, stepped foot onto the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and killed 17 students and staff members.
As the nation grieved for the victims of yet another mass shooting, Democratic and Republican politicians and pundits reengaged in conversations on gun control, mental health and school security.
While U.S. officials decide what legislative actions to take in order to prevent more shootings, WANA leaders invited Long Beach Police Officer Rudy Garcia to its meeting to teach members about active-shooter scenarios and what to do when one takes place.
The program began with a video presentation, titled “Run. Hide. Fight.,” which is a dramatization of an active-shooter incident in the workplace. Its purpose is to educate the public on how to respond during that situation. The Houston Mayor’s Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security in Texas produced the video in 2012.
The video shows a gunman storming around an office environment killing and injuring bystanders as chaos ensues.
The narrator in the video explains that the first action to take in such a situation is to run. If the shooter is not nearby, but the gunshots can still be heard, then it is recommended to evacuate the premises and call the police.
If there is no safe way to escape the shooter’s line-of-sight, then the next best option would be to barricade the room in which people may find themselves, remain quiet, turn off any lights and silence any electronic devices.
Lastly, the video shows that if it isn’t feasible to run or hide, then the final action to take would be to fight the shooter with improvised weapons.
After the video presentation, Garcia elaborated on the event that took place on the screen.
“They’re not looking for anyone specific,” he said of mass shooters. “They’re there to kill as many people as they can in a short period of time.”
Most mass shooters kill themselves once they see people in the area fighting back or police units arriving on the scene, according to Garcia. Instead of being taken into custody, they commit suicide.
Garcia told the audience that out of the three options in the video, the LBPD recommends running from the shooter and seeking emergency help in order to survive.
“The first thing that I want you guys to remember is to be aware of your surroundings,” he said. “I can’t explain to you guys what you are going to feel if that situation happens. I hope that nobody here ever goes through that. But there’s going to be an opportunity for you to run, and if you’re better prepared, I think you guys are going to make it.”
A member of the audience asked what Garcia thought about the sheriff’s deputy who failed to take action as the school shooting unfolded in Florida. Garcia told WANA members that police training has adapted to teach officers how to engage armed suspects directly so they can avoid a similar situation.
He said that in the event of a shooting, as officers sweep the perimeter looking for the shooter, they cannot assist individuals that are injured and crying for help.
Garcia said the primary goal of first responders is to neutralize or detain the shooter in order to stop them from killing or injuring others.
The officer mentioned that he participated in a training exercise on the Long Beach City College campus. Garcia said that, during the exercise, police officers responded to a simulated shooting situation, in which they were teamed up with members of the Long Beach Fire Department.
These teams moved through the campus, clearing rooms and hallways. The embedded firefighters and paramedics would stay behind and attend to injured people. One police officer would stay behind with the firefighters and act as an escort.
Garcia told the Signal Tribune that new equipment was supplied to the LBPD in order to be better prepared for an active-shooter situation.
“[The LBPD] has given us a new vest with steel plates,” he said. “It goes over the top of what I’m wearing right now. So, we are going to actually be wearing two vests. That vest is there to sustain rifle fire— AR-15s and so forth.”
It was recently reported that threats were made to Millikan, Wilson and Long Beach Poly high schools. Garcia said that detectives took immediate action and investigated the threats, which were shared on social media.
He said detectives identified a student who made one of the threats. He was pulled out of class, questioned and taken through the booking process at the LBPD’s East Division.
“We searched one of the juveniles’ house,” he said. “There were no weapons— nothing like that was recovered.”
A member of the audience asked Garcia what was the police department’s reaction to President Donald Trump’s proposal to arm school teachers with weapons following the school shooting in Florida.
He said that there has been no official statement from the police. However, he added that there is not one specific answer to stop school shootings.
“This is just my opinion. It’s hard to say if there’s one answer for [shooting] prevention,” Garcia said. “I don’t think it’s a bad idea. I think it’s a good idea that teachers are armed. But the problem is that they didn’t sign up to be armed teachers.”
Some WANA members disagreed with the officer’s remarks. Someone in the audience, who identified himself as an educator, said that having weapons in classrooms is a bad idea because students can break into a desk where the gun is stored and harm themselves or others.
I-710
WANA members voted to reconsider their stance concerning a slated improvement project to the I-710 freeway.
The I-710 Corridor Project, brought forth by the Metro’s I-710 Project Team, is a proposal that applies community input to improve the 710 Freeway. The Signal Tribune previously reported on a community meeting Metro hosted for the project in October last year.
Metro officials proposed two options to the public: Project Alternative 5C and Project Alternative 7.
Project 5C prioritizes the widening of the lanes while Project 7 emphasizes a new “clean emission” freight corridor.
WANA President Joan Greenwood said the group initially voted to support a “no-build alternative” because they felt there was “a lot of uncertainty.”
She said that WANA members will have to reconsider that initial vote and choose the best option that closely mirrors their original no-build vote.
The 710 Freeway runs through most of the Wrigley neighborhood. Any freeway construction will result in the relocation of some homeowners in the proposed site areas.
Greenwood said the most popular option amongst citizens at the moment was Project Alternative 5C because this design-build could still be tweaked to residents’ liking.
“Making the decision between 5 or 7 is just to help direct where the efforts go for the next six months,” she said.
WANA members voted to reconsider the no-build vote and to bring the topic back for discussion.
LUE
During the meeting, Greenwood asked WANA members to share ideas as to what she should discuss during the public-comment section of the March 6 Long Beach City Council meeting concerning the Land Use Element (LUE) proposal.
The LUE is a citywide project that would set new precedents for building sizes throughout local neighborhoods. At a city council meeting on Dec. 11, the Long Beach Planning Commission voted to advance the proposed LUE and urban design element (UDE) PlaceType and height maps with recommended revisions to council districts 2, 4, 5 and 6 through height reduction and modified land-use designations.
Greenwood emphasized that it was important to focus on targeting changes to the map because it is what the City will use to determine neighborhood building heights moving forward.
Members asked her to mention the equestrian zones that remain in Wrigley and to call for no four-story buildings in that area, just two-story ones. She will also make a comment about adding four-story buildings along Long Beach Boulevard only if there is an alley separating residential housing from residential zones.
WANA members also asked Greenwood to state that the Wrigley neighborhood should be under residential zoning and not transit-oriented zoning as the project moves forward.
The next WANA meeting will take place Monday, March 19, at 7pm at Veterans Park at 101 E. 28th St.
