Active shooter training held for places of worship ahead of Easter
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office hosted an active shooter training for places of worship where they talked about how to keep your congregation safe.
The training comes at a perfect time with Easter Sunday just one week away, churches around the bible belt will have huge crowds and they want to make sure everyone is safe.
Anthony Buckner, Chief Deputy at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said after the events of the past couple weeks he knew this was the right time.
“So, we knew the issue of church security was coming a little closer to us, and then the unfortunate act of a pastor being shot in the face while at church on Sunday morning that really sped this conversation up,” Buckner said.
During Saturday’s training experts from the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security talked about how you should have the interior and exterior of your building prepped for dangerous situations.
Buckner stressed with Easter is one of the biggest church holidays you want to make sure you are prepared.
“Hundreds, Thousands of people within the mid-south area will be flocking to churches and so we want to make sure we have an opportunity to just literally sit down and have conversations about how we can protect church goers,” Buckner said.
The Sheriff’s office was not the only place looking at security plans. At the Harvest Christian Fellowship in Arlington, they gathered to break down what do if a dangerous situation broke out.
Buckner is thrilled to see churches taking the initiative and stressed if there is anyone else who needed that extra step, they are more than willing to come help out.
“We understand that we won’t answer all the questions here today but we do understand there could be future opportunities to go out to local churches,” Buckner said.
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