On July 28, the last day of the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival, a 19-year-old gunman opened fire with an assault rifle, taking down three victims and causing 13 other injuries.
The following Saturday, a 21-year-old gunman began a violent rampage in an El Paso, Texas parking lot, pursuing shoppers into the Walmart nearby. He fatally wounded 22 people and two dozen others sustained gunshot-related injuries in the ensuing panic.
Within 24 hours, tragedy struck again; this time in Dayton, Ohio. In less than a minute, 10 people were killed and 17 wounded outside a bar in downtown Dayton. The 24-year-old shooter used modified weapons and extra-capacity magazines.
As people rally to mourn the loss of 34 lives across the country, the conversation inevitably swung to public safety. Three deadly mass shootings within a week left people asking where and when they are safe, and how to react when they are not.
Biomedical engineering graduate student Adwitiya Bag said she worries that San Jose State may be a target that draws mass shooters because of the large concentration of people on campus. She’s not alone in being afraid.
“It makes me afraid to go to any regular place now, since we even had that little scare here a week ago,” public health junior Michele Hinds said.
In early August, police pursuit that ended at SJSU tested campus safety protocol. San Jose police officers responded to calls of a man with a firearm near the area of East Santa Clara and North Second and followed him into the school.
UPD warned students through a text message alert, and implemented a “shelter in place” protocol.
University police department Captain Frank Belcastro told the Spartan Daily that a “shelter in place” alert advises people to remain indoors if they are in the area, whereas a lockdown means to actively barricade the room.
Hinds said she received the text message alert for the first time and found it to be more effective and informative than waiting for news reports to come through.
Working conjunctly with the San Jose Police Department, UPD established a perimeter around the Spartan Complex and safely escorted three students out before making an arrest.
UPD’s official recommendation for students in active shooter situations follows that of the
Department of Homeland Security: run, hide, fight. UPD maintains the essentials of this protocol on their website and hosts briefings on campus to teach it if students or faculty request it.
Katherine Jesana, a 2017 business administration alumna, said she went through similar active shooter training in her workplace that taught her to listen to demands, avoid risky irrational behavior and remember details.
“It’s all sound in theory when you’re reading a list of things you’re supposed to do,” Jesana said. “But when it actually comes and you’re stressed and people are stressed, I don’t think anyone will remember to follow what you’re supposed to do.”
Belcastro emphasized that public safety depends on prevention of violent incidents, which includes monitoring of suspicious behavior by the campus and the UPD Behavioral Investigations team.
Additionally, UPD maintains active shooter preparedness with department briefings and joint simulations with other agencies.
The mass shootings in Gilroy and Dayton took place within the span of a minute; Belcastro approximated the response time of UPD on campus to be under three minutes.
In the Spartan Complex incident during early August, deployment of resources took only a few minutes.
“Active shooters can happen anywhere,” Belcastro said. “It can happen, but the likelihood of it happening is minimal.”
