Back on October 12th, there was a horrible mass shooting here in Southern California in a quiet, Seal Beach hair salon. Nine people shot, eight killed. The shooter was caught soon afterwards. The event got a lot of local attention, but one story I had not heard about just came out in the news. A number of guys, ex-military and/or ex-first responders, but now all civilians, were the first ones on the scene of the bloody aftermath.

It's an interesting account of what they did and perhaps reading about what they did could be instructive for some future incident. Maybe we'll be involved in something like this in the future and suddenly remember this story. For example, announcing out loud that you were there to help so that people hiding from the gunman would show themselves, especially anyone needing medical attention.

Despite the horrible event, you feel proud of how these guys sprang to action. Then again, the article does also point out that it's not all roses and that getting involved in extreme circumstances like these takes a psychological toll, which I think is a very valuable thing to point out. Too often, we hear about the spectacular actions of folks, but never the long-term follow-up. Many of us choose to get training for first aid, CERT, firearms, etc. thinking that we can help others, but don't necessarily get taught about what happens after it's all over.

You can read about it here.

That takes a lot of guts to run toward gunshots. Very courageous men. The one guy -- the guy who the shooter leveled his weapon at -- is lucky to be alive.

HJ

Thanks for postgin that article

Many of my friends jab me for not watching Horror movies or gory films. My response is always, once you see it in real life, I don't want to see it in my movies. I am a Muppets and Disney kind of guy myself.

There may be repercussions for rushing in to help, weather it be putting yourself in danger or the memories you can't shake. It is people like this that who gives the term " good samaritan " true meaning.

I am glad to see that they weren't injured during this event

That was a good response by those guys. If it had turned out that some of the people inside the hair salon could have been saved - they might have saved more lives. Childers was pretty lucky that the shooter didn't mow him down when he ran to the entrance of the salon. But overall - excellent job by the guys in the street.

Pete2

October 12, (Columbus Day) might be a good date to remember if you are out of the country.... though not connected to this tragedy it is the date of the al Qaeda attacks on the USS Cole in 2000, and the anniversary attack in Bali, Indonesia in 2002...

Good point. I've never been in anything similar I should be catious about making blatant statements about life and death situations. The next best thing is to listen to the advice of those that do go into harm's way. I highly recommend "On Combat" by Dave Grossman. It deals specifically with what happens before, during and after highly violent and maximum stressful situations.
Amazon link

If you know the range and variations of reactions to expect you can make plans to deal with them.

Wow, that was a great article, thank you for posting it.
This part really caught my eye:
As a former Marine, Childers assigned tasks to his colleagues. One would act as a spotter across the street, looking out for the shooter should he return. A second, Mike Sauerwein, 34, would relay messages from the spotter to Childers or from Childers to the crew.

Having a designated spotter and a messenger makes a lot of sense. I never would have thought of that.
-Blast

Yeah, I noticed that, too. Definitely shows that specific kinds of training helps because that's certainly not the kind of tactical mindset that I think I would have coming across a scene like that, but with a shooter still out there, that's what was required.

I think most gunshot victims are lucky if any bystanders have basic first aid, but that was only a one-on-one thing in first aid class. Under extreme stress, your typical person probably has tunnel vision and might just starting treating the first person they come across and essentially ignore a roomfull of other victims.

So, Childers et al went beyond just first aid, but probably into triage to quickly assess everyone before concentrating on the most urgent ones first, into securing the scene by checking for more shooters, then setting up the lookout, moving the ambulatory to safety, into delegating tasks--very impressive indeed. Heroes all around, in my book.

We've kept a low profile for quite some time in order to protect the families. I did want to say that Arney bringing up CERT was a point I was going to make on here, a valuable tool for those that aren't part of a response, or are in need of training/refresher. I know I could have been "mowed down" that day, but it was a chance I was willing to make in order to try to save those that I could. Doing what I did is something I wouldn't hesitate to do again, and have been in situations before. I do implore people to get at least a basic knowledge of first aid, and to think outside the box (thus the spotter/comm. and not allowing certain people to break the barrier of the scene).