CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Conway police say they’ve seen an increase in requests for active shooter training, especially after recent mass shootings around the country.
One of those active shooter training sessions took place Thursday night in the Wild Wing community. The group recently restarted their neighborhood watch program and subsequently set up the presentation by Conway police.
“It’s really important,” said Chip Houle, who attended the presentation. “With a lot of things going on in the world today, I think everybody should go through a training course like this.”
The civilian-based active shooter training was put on by Sgt. Johnathan McAllister who said he’s gotten a lot of requests since the Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs shootings.
“Right now we are at one of the peaks where the class is in high demand,” he added.
The class focuses on how to get out of a dangerous situation and admits the curriculum has evolved because nowadays not all events are shootings.
“People don’t just use guns,” said Sgt. McAllister. “You got vehicles being used, you’ve got knives being used. Any kind of item can be used as a weapon.”
Corina Bennett helped bring the class to the Wild Wing Community and said she’s faced several scary situations.
“It seems like I’ve been just on the periphery of a lot of different events,” said Bennett. “9/11 happened and I used to work in Manhattan…the Boston bombings [happened] and I was at a training three days following that.” She said the class is beneficial to people who work at home and retirees because they have no option to get training in a work-place setting.
The course takes about an hour and is free. If your group is interested contact Sgt. McAllister at 843.488.7657.
