4. An armed assailant attack

How do we behave when an active assailant-shooter attacks? Imagine you are at the scene of an attack where an armed assailant is shooting at everyone around with the intention of killing as many people as possible. Your goal is to survive..

Expect that if this situation occurs, you will not be prepared. An active shooter attack is always sudden and surprising. It's entirely out of the ordinary. 

You'll find yourself in a situation you've probably never been in before. Please be aware that the following information may save your life and the lives of others. There have been active shooters even in the Czech Republic.

Location of an attack is usually linked to the motive for the attack - revenge for the loss of employment, expulsion from studies, long-term psychological or physical harm, death of a close person, neighbourhood relations, racial intolerance, social exclusion, financial hardship, political and religious beliefs, etc. Soft targets, i.e. places with high concentrations of people and low levels of security, are most at risk:

  • social or sporting events,
  • cinemas and theatres,
  • churches,
  • offices,
  • sports facilities - water parks, ice rinks, etc..,
  • hospitals,
  • schools,
  • railway stations, underground stations, etc..,
  • shopping centres, etc.

An active shooter is an armed person (usually male) who attacks other people with a firearm or other weapon with the intent to kill as many people as possible.

The attacker may attract your attention through suspicious behaviour, nervousness, etc.

In most cases:

  1. The method, place, and time of the attack are planned in advance.
  2. The attacker uses firearms - pistols, revolvers, self-loading rifles or submachine guns. The use of motor vehicles (Olga Hepnarová, who deliberately drove a truck into a tram stop in Prague in 1973, killing 8 people) or explosives is possible.
  3. The attacker is not negotiating.
  4. The targets are usually random people, but it is possible to target victims deliberately.
  5. The attacker does not expect to survive. It often ends in suicide. His behaviour is consistent with having nothing left to lose.