Former SWAT sergeant advises what to do in mass shooting situation

In the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in the United States, a retired Pierce County sergeant is urging all Americans to stop and think about what they would do in an active shooter situation – and he’s offering advice.

Sgt. Jesus Villahermosa says in watching the many videos from Las Vegas documenting the horror as it unfolded, he consistently sees one mistake.

“There’s one video, everybody is laying down, and there’s a woman yelling, ‘No, no, no, everybody stay down, everybody stay down.’ Okay, not the best advice,” Villahermosa said.

Scroll down to continue reading

Related headlines: 

• Las Vegas shooting: 58 dead, 515 injured
• Las Vegas shooting: Who is Stephen Paddock?
• Las Vegas shooting: Jason Aldean, other celebrities share prayers on social media 
• PHOTOS: Las Vegas shooting, deadliest in modern U.S. History
• VIDEO: Brother of Stephen Paddock "Dumbfounded" by Las Vegas shooting

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE NEWS APP

“A lot of people kept pointing their cameras up to the Mandalay Bay which tells you they knew the gunfire was coming from there, and yet, they continued to lay down in this carpet of human beings. An ocean of people if you will, who in my opinion, are waiting to die,” Villahermosa said.

The former sergeant also owns “Crisis Reality Training,” a company that works to educate people on how to best respond to active shooter situations.

Villahermosa says as long as you know you’re not running towards the shooter, you should run.

“Running is absolutely a survival tactic,” he said.  “From the range that guy is shooting at, there’s no way he’s going to hit a moving target, not in a million years. It’s not going to happen. It’s going to be a complete fluke shot.”

His advice – duck and cover initially, because you don’t know if the shooter is in front, behind, or to the left or right. But as soon as you figure out those directions are not a threat, you should run until you can no longer hear gunfire.

“Duck and cover, you need to take that out of your manual, your survival manual. It doesn’t work. It’s the number one common denominator for fatalities,” Villahermosa said.

He says thinking about what you would do in a mass shooting situation is something everyone must take the time to do – and something parents need to talk about with their kids.

“You can’t not think about these anymore. They’re too frequent. You’ve got to think about ‘what would I do if.’ With the holidays coming, I’m very concerned,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you have to be paranoid. It just means you have to be proactive.”

Cox Media Group