Law enforcement teaches survival skills against a shooter

Ten days after the mass shooting at the Landing in Downtown Jacksonville, local law enforcement participated in training to teach the public about defense mechanisms in an active shooter situation.

Black Knight partnered with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the Jacksonville Chambers to host a training lesson Wednesday at their building downtown.

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Vice president and director of security Michael Skogland led the event today alongside the chief of patrol for JSO.

“The likelihood of one of these events is real and you have to ask yourself that question, ‘How am I going respond should I find myself in one of these events?’” Skogland said.

They taught two national programs, “Run, Hide, Fight” which is from the Department of Homeland Security and “Avoid, Deny, Defend” which is credited to Texas State University.

“Giving you that situation awareness, always be aware of your surroundings and ideally prep you with the tools necessary to make the right decision for you, should you find yourself in one of these unfortunate events,” Skogland said.

First responders said the first two minutes are the most critical for a gunshot victim.

“With our current situation with terrorism and active shooters and even beyond that with a simple gunshot wound somewhere, the front line for this now are civilians,” CEO of Tactical Medics International Douglas Kleiner said. “So we want to make sure civilians know how to use this and have the equipment there to do it.”

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Kleiner has experience as a police officer and was an assistant professor at the University of North Florida for medicine and emergency medicine. His company specializes in tactical law enforcement medicine and military combat medicine.

“Urgency,” Kleiner said. “They need to be proficient with this, to be able to do this in the dark if they are tactical guys that we train, then they have gloves on. They usually have obstacles with them and they just need to train with that.”

Cox Media Group