Howard Street Christian Church receives active shooter training

Members of the Howard Street Christian Church in Colfax participated in an active shooter training class Sunday presented by the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office.

Around 40 church members attended the class to learn how to react in an active shooter situation. Pastor Tom Burns said the idea of bringing the topic to the church began while talking to the Colfax Fire Department chief about implementing emergency plans. Burns said the class idea came about through discussions with community members.

In addition, Burns said he mostly wanted to have the class because of worldwide events that have occurred as of late.

Instructors from the sheriff’s office were Chief Deputy Duane Rozendaal and Sheriff John Halferty. The emergency action plan the sheriff’s office introduced was ALICE — alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate or escape.

Burns said the church, like many organizations, have a plan in case of a fire or tornado, but not too many places have a plan in case of an active shooter situation.

“We need to make a plan of where we want to go in case of this emergency and we need to have something down in writing,” Burns said. “We need to be in aware in today’s world and just know what could take place.”

Burns said he was very pleased with the class and it helped him with some ideas to know what to do. Burns said one take away from the class was if there is a threat, have some knowledge on whether to get away or deflect the perpetrator.

“We want to come up with a plan that is going to get a positive and effective outcome,” Burns said. “Thank you to the sheriff’s office — it was wonderful they came out on a Sunday to hold this class.”

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office encourages all citizens to be prepared and to have an emergency action plan in place.

Contact Kayla Langmaid at 641-792-3121 ext. 6513 or klangmaid@newtondailynews.com