Proactive Protection: Readiness and Resources for Crisis Response

On April 10, 2025, in the city of Louisville, KY, communities gathered for StoryFest - a celebration of resilience and healing through storytelling. The event was started by the Tommy Elliott Fund, a nonprofit established after a tragic mass shooting that occurred at Old National Bank in Louisville two years ago on April 10, 2023. A bank employee, Connor Sturgeon, 25, walked into a downtown Louisville branch with an assault rifle and opened fire. Five people were killed, and several others were injured in the shooting, including two Louisville police officers.

In 2018, 29-year-old Omar Perez (not a former bank employee) opened fire at the Fifth Third Bank's Cincinnati headquarters, killing three people and wounding two others. Perez had a history of mental health struggles and employment issues. Senseless tragedies such as these never make sense.

Sadly, mass shootings have become more common in recent years and finding effective security measures to prevent them is a complex challenge. While there is no silver bullet to stop an active shooter incident,implementing a combination of various criteria can help to reduce the risk.

The Five Phases of an Active Shooter
According to Lt. Dan Marcou, former SWAT officer, author, and internationally-recognized police trainer with over 33 years of law enforcement experience, it is imperative to educate the public on how to prevent active shooter incidents by watching for certain common behaviors shooters exhibit.

1. Fantasy Stage: People do not just arbitrarily wake up one day and decide to commit a public massacre. According to researchers Jillian Peterson, Ph.D., and James Densley, Ph.D., the majority of mass shooters - 80% to be precise - demonstrated signs of a severe crisis as exhibited by their behavior before committing the crime. Nearly one-half disclosed their plans ahead of time, such as by posting on social media.
2. Planning Stage: During this phase, the potential shooter will often document their plans in writing. Their methodology typically includes when they will kill, what means they will use to accomplish their goals, and when, where, and how the killing will take place. The shooter often includes intricate explanations for their intended behavior.
3. Preparation Stage: The active shooter-in-waiting will gather the weapons required to deliver on their plans of death and destruction. The culprit will also visit the scene in advance to surveil and gather intelligence as they finalize their objectives.
4. Approach Stage: While it can appear as though shooters arrive on the scene with their guns blazing. Although this can be true, in most situations, the perpetrator will mentally prepare or "stage" their activities in advance. Fundamentally, these criminals commonly visualize their behavior in parking lots, stairwells, and outside buildings several minutes before the attack
5. Implementation Stage: The active shooting begins once the first shot is fired. Regardless of their motivations, these attackers are intent on murdering as many victims as possible. This is when panic and chaos ensue, with some people running away and others looking for safe places to hide. When fleeing is not an option, many potential victims choose to fight. The immediate and aggressive response of armed and unarmed citizens, security personnel, and law enforcement has thwarted many shooters and saved lives.

"We can't prevent them all, but we can prevent many if more people understand the Five Stages of the Active Shooter." Marcou contends that more lives can be saved if the shooter can be interrupted during the first four of the five stages of these horrific events.

Response and Resources
In the course of their investigation after the Old National Bank incident, authorities found multiple disturbing social media posts and photos on Sturgeon's phone. They also discovered multiple notebooks where Sturgeon wrote daily "diaries" about his unhappiness with his job direction, society, and political issues. He bought the rifle and ammunition six days before the shooting, in less than an hour. Families of the victims and survivors filed a lawsuit against River City Firearms, arguing footage inside the store showing the transaction and the shooter's body language implicated many red flags that should have stopped the sale.

While experts agree that there is no single solution to stop mass shooting events from occurring in the future. The increase in these tragic events highlights the need for businesses and individuals to prepare for the unlikely as though it were inevitable. Some expert-recommended guidelines that your financial institution can adopt to create an effective, multi-layered security program that mitigates the threat includes:

• Perform a comprehensive assessment of your current physical security strategy. Do you have solid preventative and reactive protocols to prevent and respond to gun violence?
• Use technology, such as metal detectors and X-ray scanners, to detect weapons or other dangerous objects that may be brought into a facility or event area.
• Review each phase of a potential shooter outline by Lt. Marcou. Consider if your bank has done everything possible to address and respond to all five stages.
• Conducting situational awareness and training is a critical element of your security strategy. Have emergency preparedness plans in place to minimize the impact of an active shooter incident and schedule active-shooter drills for staff.

Implementing active shooter preparedness training is critical to keeping your employees, customers, and the public safe. Following are some resources to help you prepare your active shooter staff training:

FBI Active Shooter Attack Prevention and Preparedness (ASAPP)
A two-hour course to empower participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to survive an active shooter incident in any environment and Run. Hide. Fight. training videos that demonstrate three tactics to keep yourself and others safe during an active shooter attack.
https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/active-shooter-safety-resources

Department of Homeland Security CISA Active Shooter Preparedness offers products, tools, and resources to help you prepare for and respond to an active shooter incident at https://www.cisa.gov/active-shooter-preparedness and www.dhs.go/xlibrary/assets/active_shooter_booklet.pdf

The ALERRT Center at Texas State University provides excellent research-based active shooter response training at https://alerrt.org/.

The Red Cross has several resources on Active Shooter, including a Sample Active Shooter Training Presentation to help you educate members of your organization on how to recognize signs of potential violent behavior, react during an active shooter situation, and render aid.
https://www.readyrating.org/?s=active+shooter

In the aftermath of the tragic active shooter incident at Old National Bank in Louisville, the bank took steps to support its employees and the community. They provided counseling services and resources to those affected and worked closely with local authorities during the investigation. Additionally, the bank reopened at a new location, symbolizing resilience and a commitment to moving forward.