Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 21 July 2023

These updates are shared to help raise the situational awareness of Faith-Based organizations to best defend against, and mitigate the impacts from all-hazards threats including physical security, cybersecurity, and natural disasters.

A man with thousands of bullets and a grenade attacked police and killed an officer. What was his plan?

The armed assailant who ambushed first responders and murdered a North Dakota police officer was armed with 1,800 rounds of ammunition, numerous firearms, and a grenade.

Two other police officers and a woman were wounded.  Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski said it might have been worse had there not been emergency crews already there, including an ambulance. As soon as the firing stopped, “firefighters bounced out and they were applying first aid immediately to our officers,” Zibolski said.

“When you look at the amount of ammunition this shooter had in his car, he was planning on more mayhem in our community,” Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney said.

Analyst Comment:

If the well-armed shooter had attacked a “soft target” where police were not present, the death toll may have been much higher.

As was discussed in Wednesday’s Daily Awareness Post, Faith-Based Organizations (FBO) that have been hardened, stand less of a chance of being victimized.  FBOs should consider increasing the security of their facilities, to include additional physical security measures, create emergency action and incident response plans, and build awareness of suspicious activity indicators, to ultimately improve the ability of your organization to prevent, detect, deter, and disrupt potential plots.

The article notes that without immediate medical care, the death toll may have been higher. FBOs should consider receiving basic first aid training. FEMA’s You Are the Help Until Help Arrives program can prepare FBO staff and members if a tragedy occurs. A wide variety of trauma bleeding control kits are also available.