Since the Columbine School Shooting in 1999, training for response to active shooters at schools has become a major focus of today’s law enforcement professionals, other disciplines of public safety and the general public. In future articles we’ll take a look at why that is - how exactly it became such a big focus after the Columbine attack - but to start out this series of articles on active and mass shootings, we’re first going to take a look at the past. How far back you ask? 1764…
In 1764, according to reports (since I wasn’t actually there), the first documented attack at a school in America occurred. On July 26th, 1764 four Delaware American Indians entered a schoolhouse near present day Greencastle, PA with the intent of killing those inside. The schoolmaster, Enoch Brown, pleaded with the Indians to spare the children before he was shot and scalped. The four American Indians went on to scalp eleven children, nine of which died from their wounds, and four more were taken prisoner. While the schoolmaster was shot, this event is not considered an active shooting because only one of the victims was killed via a gunshot wound and the rest of the attack was carried out with melee weapons.
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The remainder of this article is part of the book "Active Killers and the Crimes They Perpetrated," available in print or ebook via Amazon.
Joshua Borelli
Joshua Borelli has been studying active shooter and mass attack events over the course of the past several years, commensurate with receiving training on response and recovery to natural disasters and civil disturbances. Joshua started to outline this series of articles in an attempt to identify commonalities and logistical needs patterns for response.
