The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) Tuesday hosted an event to teach citizens how to respond in the event that they encounter a mass shooter.
“TBI is partnering with other sponsors in presenting this event to offer attendees information on how to increase emergency preparedness, understand critical response, and implement actions that increase survivability,” the law enforcement agency said on its Facebook page. “A TBI special agent will be among the panelists available following the seminar to answer questions.”
The event was co-sponsored by Defend Systems, a safety and security consulting firm based in Nashville. It was held at Lipscomb University.
The consulting group is run by “active and retired law enforcement experts” who “have planned and conducted thousands of high-risk tactical and surreptitious operations and have defeated hundreds of security measures.”
Brink Fidler, a 20-year veteran of the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD), is the founder of the group. He retired as the director of MNPD’s Drug Task Force.
“This extensive background, coupled with his continuous and in-depth study of active shooter events, gives him a unique and insightful approach to this frequent and worsening problem as well as best practices for mitigating damage during such an event,” according to the event invitation.
The group boasts clients including the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) and the Tennessee State Board of Education (TSBE), along with several individual schools around the state.
“This training seminar will explore ways to make existing facilities safer as well as how to: increase emergency preparedness, understand critical response, embrace lessons learned from tragedy, identify pre-attack indicators, retain actions that increase survivability, and more,” the invitation says.
The event was held just after surveillance video was released from Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which was the site of a mass shooting on May 24. During that event 21 people were killed, including 19 elementary students and two teachers.
In the video, law enforcement officers can be seen standing in the school hallways, one even checking his phone, while the active shooter was still a threat.
Those authorities reportedly waited 78 minutes to breach the classroom where the shooter was wreaking havoc, causing outrage in the Uvalde community and beyond.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
