ACTIVE SHOOTING SITUATION

Hi Tribe!

The purpose of this online platform and of this forum is to share information and knowledge that can help individuals to become better Protectors, able to defend their lives and the ones around them.

This post that I make now is about the terrorist attack that was happening on 22 March in Moscow.

I underline from the beginning that this post is not about who is behind this attack, whether it is ISIS, or a false flag operation, or an operation in the interests of one or the other rival parts of the current Russian political parties. I don't have the knowledge and neither the information to be able to make some claims about this.

What is tragic is that old people, women, children were killed, and this is the reality in which we live in. Me and you cannot make many things to change the agendas behind these events, but what we can do is BE PREPARED! READY TO ACT AND SAFE LIVES!

What I can do is share from my own experience and training some thoughts that could help you and the ones around you to increase your chances of surviving these types of situations. With the help of our Brother Boris K. "Sentry" that was sending me some video footage of this attack (some of these materials cannot be published on normal social media because of their graphic content), I will make a short analysis of them.

A resume of the incident:

On Friday evening, gunmen in camouflage entered Crocus City Hall, opening fire toward the crowd just minutes before a sold-out concert was slated to begin. The venue had a maximum capacity of 9,000 people.

The attackers used automatic weapons and explosives, setting the concert hall ablaze with “a flammable liquid,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Telegram.

Officials said at least 133 people have been killed in the concert hall shooting in Moscow, one of the worst terror attacks in Russia’s recent history.

There are 7 videos, so I will talk about them one by one.

I will start now with the first video:

1 - The Beginning of the Attack: Active Shooters Enter the Building After Killing Those at the Entrance on the Street

We see at the beginning of this video the main entrance of the venue and some people that are already noticing and hearing gunshots are entering and moving inside the location. Now you must understand that in the majority case studies many victims hearing only the gunshots were denying that those were gunshots and their brain tried to find other explanations for these sounds like firecrackers, construction noises, and so on. Now in the video people at the entrance were having also visual contact of the terrorists, so in this situation they have a full spectrum of what is happening. You can see that some people are running inside the venue, running or walking away from the access point, but we see also some individuals old and young that are taking cover behind a wall column using also some tables as protection when the attackers are opening fire at the entrance.

Here I want to be very clear! YOU always RUN as fast as you can away from the danger zone, or if you only are able to hear, you run away from gunshot sounds. Now also very important! You RUN.... But where do you run? Running in chaos without knowing a direction or an emergency exit or a point of evasion will not help you a lot. So I will underline here the importance of intel gathering and awareness. I know that can sound a little bit too hard and paranoid for some people, but this is the world in which we live, and if you want to survive, you must be prepared. When I was working in the tactical police unit but especially as a close protection operator, before me and my team were going with the Principle/VIP to a venue, we had a step called Intel Gathering. In this moment we were gathering information about everything from the itinerary (the main route, secondary routes, emergency routes), the location where we go (the type of building, identifying main entries and secondary entries, an emergency exit, safe havens, types of doors, and so on).

In this particular situation I am interested in the location: Crocus City Hall Moscow. So identifying before what the emergency exits or other points of evasion are can help you RUN in the right direction. Now you can ask: Okay! But how I can make this if I was never in? Up to 70% of the information that we were gathering in my past missions was obtained from the internet (Google Maps, the official venue website, posted photos and tags). The rest was going on the terrain and confirming all.

Now in the first video we see a young male that tries to protect the people that take cover by putting some tables in front. This is another reason why I all the time remind you to train not only with knives. Knowing the difference between cover and concealment is very important in these types of situations. Those tables will not stop bullets. That can be only a type of concealment (it is concealing your body). Cover is stopping bullets like the big column or the block-motor from the car. We see around more persons that are doing the same staying behind those columns. A fixed target is a dead target! At the 00:54 we see how all these people are killed.

We pass now to the second video:

2 - Active Shooters Get Deeper in the Building

So again I underline that my role here is not to tell my own opinion about this event, who is behind it or whether it is staged. I only want to tell you that the individuals that are filming especially in this video are really stupid or part of the stage. If you hear, see the terrorist killing people around you, you must RUN for your life! Again 133 people were killed, and my job is to give you some advice that can help you.

In this video we can see now the process of Search-Identify-Kill. So the active shooters now are taking step by step every part of the building searching for targets.

3 - Active Shooters Corner Targets and Fire Indiscriminately

This is a graphic video in which we can see the real "faces" of these individuals. The faces of evil! Again understand that RUNNING away from the danger zone is key when you have the possibility to do it. We see in this footage at 00:11 a male that is finding a moment to escape via the security control doors.

4 - Active Shooters at the Performance Hall Firing at Cornered Targets Indiscriminately

In this video we can see the terrorists that were entering the Performance Hall, and they are doing the same thing: search, identify, and kill. Now please understand that each venue will have main entry points and emergency points. We see that the terrorists are going together in a formation, so that has bad and good points. The bad point is that fighting them without carrying a fire weapon will be a very hard and an impossible task. Now again if you barricade yourself in a room and you don't have any evasion point, that is the last solution to try to do something for protecting the ones around you. So do your homework, know the configuration of the venue in which you will be with your family. We see at the ground level in the first video people running up. Use the tables that cannot cover you from bullets and break a window and RUN! Again I know it is easy to speak from a relax position now, but it is all about mindset and training.

5 - Panic Among Those Fleeing

In this video we can see people that are fleeing away and here is the important element.

6 - Density of Fire

In this video we can hear the density of fire.

7 - Footage Filmed by Active Shooters Themselves

At 00:10 we can see that the level of training of these individuals is low. They don't have knowledge of making a team entry or two-men entry. The one that is entering the trash hole, the door is exposing all his back to the left side in the moment in which he is shooting towards the right. So if your only weapon is a knife and it is the last option, that is the moment in which you can try to do something.

Conclusions

1. Know the exit and emergency points. If you don't have one, try to identify and make one (break a window for example).

2. Understand the difference between cover and concealment.

3. Always if you can RUN AWAY from the danger zone, MOVE! Fixed target is a dead target.

4. Be armed! The fire weapon is the superior weapon. If you cannot carry one, choose to carry a knife but understand the limitation of it and that this weapon is the last resort.

5. Carry and learn to use trauma medicine equipment. This is a mandatory element in these situations. You can still be a protector by providing trauma care to the victims. It's not enough to have a tourniquet and a chest seal in mass trauma situations.

6. If the last option is to HIDE, DON'T hide in a fetus position. This position will not allow you to act, to fight.

7. Try to purchase backpacks that are coming with bulletproof pads. Understand that you need a Level IVA level of protection. A Level III vest is not designed to stop AK-47 bullets. It may offer some protection against lower-velocity rifle rounds, but not against the higher-powered AK-47. We see in this attack that the terrorists were armed with AK 47 rifles.

I add to this post also the analysis that our Brother Boris K. "Sentry" was making and that will help you better understand the situation and what you can do to increase the chances of surviving these types of events:

1) Always look for what stands out. What's out of the ordinary in someone's behavior, in the surroundings, in the actions of everyone around? This is a rule that works for self-defense situations, for venue security, and for urban warfare equally well. Back in the day, on a few occasions, I was tasked with assisting local law enforcement with ensuring venue security for certain local public events. I was instructed and trained well in advance on the very particular things to look for and various protocols involved in the case of their identification. My job was to be part of the low-visibility layer of venue security, where I acted as a typical venue visitor but constantly scanned the venue premises and the crowd for anything that stood out and could compromise security. This process of early threat identification is a nuanced one, there are many pre-incident indicators to look for, among other things. But it really boils down to one simple rule: look for what stands out. On those occasions, in the crowd, I looked for individuals being part of the crowd but not exactly enthusing in the public event, those "scanning" the crowd and/or the security detail or "roaming" around aimlessly, those having certain body language and facial microexpressions that could be indicative of a particular course of action they were about to take, etc. In the venue premises, I looked for anything from suspiciously left vehicles to certain entrances to nearby multistory apartment buildings left open. Anything that was out of the ordinary suggested the presence of a potential threat and was worth looking into and, if more signs indicated a threat, worth reporting to those who handled the immediate layer of the venue security. How does this principle apply to this situation? In the early seconds of the first video, when the attack was gaining momentum, we can see a lot of things that were just standing out: - Distinct gunshot sounds from right behind the entrance on the street. This is another good reason to study various types and models of firearms even if you live in an area where you are not allowed to own or carry firearms. You get familiar with what each type of firearm and even each model of firearm sounds like and how experienced the shooter/shooters might be by just the pattern of discharging their weapon/weapons. Something I recommend in this regard is the "hickok45" channel on YouTube: this guy and his son shoot a lot of various firearms, explain how they work in a simple way, and this is a ready pool of knowledge to quickly familiarize yourself with the sound and the design of the most common types of firearms and models that are likely to be present in an active shooter situation (this is not a commercial, just a suggestion to bridge that gap in firearm knowledge if you have one). - People walking away from the entrance fast. Even a security guard with a dog (keeping his poise like a champ, by the way, all as he is basically fleeing from his duty). Eventually people start running away. This alone should send one straight into the "orange" mode of situational awareness, using Jeff Cooper's color code system, meaning that one needs to be extremely alert and focused on the threat, ready to transition to taking action. - An actual visual sight of active shooters killing someone in the entrance, with glass breaking from gunshots soon after, and them entering the area. This is where one's situational awareness should already be in the "red" mode of situational awareness, implying that one either takes action or runs. The Tribe will soon have access to a set of materials on the topic of early threat identification by means of learning to recognize and interpret a variety of pre-incident indicators that suggest a high potential for targeted violence. This is something Brother Griffin and I have been dedicated to making.

2) Go Through the Process of Psychological Conditioning for Combat Beforehand.

This is a must to minimize the effect of the stress response on how you react to the situation. We can see a lot of people throughout the videos being completely unprepared for the situation, first and foremost when it comes to the mindset, making a lot of irrational, ineffective, dangerous decisions. This is the process that has to be done well in advance. It is usually too late to do anything about your fear and your stress response in the critical situation as it is unfolding. You have to fortify your conscious and unconscious mind well in advance. The Tribe's series on the Basic Psychological Readiness for Combat will eventually cover this process extensively article by article.

3) Dumb Ways to Die - Know Them, Avoid Them.

As Brother Griffin has pointed out, and I cannot stress this one enough, don't be the person: - Believing that a little table will save you from a full-auto AK. - Filming active shooters as if you were immune to full-auto AK just by standing at an elevation or at a distance. - Observing active shooters with a full-auto AK through a transparent glass.

- Acting like prey and believing the predator will have mercy for you just because you are special. - Getting into a crowd full of scared people and trying to rush to the exit first only to fall in that crowd and potentially die from multiple injuries inflicted by the crowd itself before an active shooter gets to you. If you find yourself in such a crowd, prioritize your balance, the most important thing is not to fall down, keep your chest filled with air (this provides extra layer of protection for your ribs and internal organs from compression), use your limbs to create distance, as much as possible, and the key part - keep moving with the flow, never against it, never suddenly out of it. Imagine you're in a river - best you can do is follow its flow and slowly get yourself to one of its edges if you want out of it.

This is in no way to diminish the victims of this tragic event. But we have to detach from our emotions when analyzing such materials and learn what the mistakes of others have to teach us. Stress responses to such situations can make a human being do a lot of irrational things like those from the list. Which is why, yet again, prior psychological conditioning is key. And basic situational awareness: of the types of weapons being used, of the reliability of the cover you've chosen, of the dynamic of the situation - be it active shooting right next to you or being stuck in a scared crowd. Finally, as Brother Griffin has pointed out, it is always a good idea to study the crowded place you're about to visit. These are indeed the troubled times we live in. Never get into a crowded venue unless you know full well its layout and how to get out of it if things go south. If you can, visit this place before it gets crowded. Walk around it. Let your mind absorb all the details of the area and its premises. Visualize various scenarios happening at the venue and prepare your responses well in advance. Back to looking for what stands out, this should be applied on a strategic level as well. This is something called threat intelligence. In this particular case, we must look at the bigger picture surrounding the venue and do our homework: - Have there been any recent fake calls about some explosives in that venue or anywhere close to it? Any fake calls about some shooting? Perhaps some emergency medical situation that never happened? While this may seem like no big deal at first, this is usually part of the bigger picture of preparing an attack like the one we've seen in this case. With the help of such fake calls, the future attackers get to assess the response of emergency services and course-correct their plan, as well as desensitizing the law enforcement in the area to an active shooter situation actually happening, making them reluctant to respond fast when it actually happens. - Is the level of security present at the venue adequate for the number of people attending it? Is it suddenly lower than usual? It's no secret that many active shooter situations are orchestrated for various political reasons, and the presence of such signs may indicate that a certain venue has been chosen for exactly this type of hoax event. - Is it a "gun-free zone"? Over 90% of active shooter situations happen in non-permissive environments such as "gun-free zones" and for a good reason. Bad individuals find their ways to bring in weapons, but in such an area everybody else is basically a sitting duck. The list is in no way exhaustive, as threat intelligence is a sophisticated subject and cannot be explained in just one post. This is merely to give you an idea that there are various levels on which you have to look for things that stand out, that don't add up, that may be early signs of something bad about to happen. "Eternal vigilance is the price of our liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

This next part is intended as an addition to the analysis of the recent active shooter situation that took place in Moscow, which Tribe Commander Brother Griffin and I decided to make as detailed as possible. Despite the tragic outcome of this incident, it has a lot for us protectors to learn from.

Long story short, a new piece of video footage has recently come to my attention. Because of the sensitive nature of this material, I've contemplated offering my analysis of it. Nevertheless, I believe it is my duty as both a security professional and a human being to share this perspective with you.

Before I do so, I would like to remind you of the wise words that Tribe Commander Brother Griffin said at the beginning of our analysis: we are not here to determine the political nature of this incident. Thus, my perspective in regard to the video material I've mentioned is intended solely to increase the extent to which we can learn from this incident in terms of our ability to identify such threats early and respond to them effectively.

Now, let us take a look at this video material, which was filmed by one of the witnesses who was trapped in a hall inside the building where the active shooter situation took place:

There are several aspects of this video that I would like to point out:

1) Individuals of a similar body composition who are dressed in exactly the same types of blue clothing items, located throughout the hall.

2) The clear presence of a communication device in the ear of at least one of those individuals.

3) Untypically calm and reserved behavior of all those individuals: one of them is even sitting in a completely relaxed position.

4) The ongoing communication between those individuals, both verbal and non-verbal. The guy with the communication device in his ear is shouting in Russian to some of those other individuals, "Close the doors!" He is also giving a hand sign that can be interpreted as, "Wrap it up, let's get going." Based on my knowledge, there is a very similar tactical hand sign in Russian special forces with the exact same meaning.

5) The way in which this individual with the communication device in his ear just pushes a random civilian nearby and goes on to take pictures.

6) The fact that the individual in question gives the command to close the doors despite the evacuation protocol in the building suggesting the exact opposite: there was a fire going on, and upon those doors being closed, the crowd was trapped in the hall, not to mention turning into a "sitting duck" for the active shooters who would have no difficulty breaching those doors upon reaching the hall.

To say the least, this group of individuals stands out in more ways than one.

This observation brings us to a few important conclusions:

1) The individuals in question were not random visitors but rather a team working in a coordinated manner on their own objectives in this situation.

2) The individuals in question were not afraid of the threat that the situation posed to themselves, showing disregard for the crowd of civilians getting trapped in the hall and amplifying the level of threat to those civilians by their course of action.

3) The individuals in question were dressed in a uniform fashion, which in a CQC environment is an essential element of being quickly and easily identified as "friendly."

The individuals in question, therefore, seem to have been active participants in this situation unfolding.

No political speculations here.

What is the takeaway?

One man's cruelty is another man's pragmatism.

It is not uncommon for some active shooter situations to represent hoax events, organized by vile and resourceful individuals who utilize someone else's violence for their own objectives, ensuring certain political outcomes.

This means that as protectors we need to keep our minds open at all times to a variety of threats that might be lurking in our midst. We return to the same principle: look for anything that stands out. You walk into a hall and notice a bunch of dudes all dressed exactly the same, some with comms in their ears, not exactly enthusing in the event? Something's off. A wise course of action would be to extract yourself and those you choose to protect from this area as soon as possible, doing so without drawing attention and triggering the individuals in question, until the nature of their presence in the area is clarified - if it needs to be clarified at all. As I heard one coach say once, "If something looks like shit and smells like shit, you do not need to bend over and positively ascertain that it is indeed shit."

Stay safe all!