Safety in the Sanctuary: Is Your Church Prepared?

At that second, Chinn says he knew he was going to either see his fellow team member kill or be killed. After shooting several times in rapid fire, Assam started walking toward the shooter. “I didn’t have any idea whether she completely missed him or if he was running,” says Chinn.

Chinn ran up next to her, and both of them reached the shooter at the same time. Murray was dead (the autopsy reported he had taken his own life with a single gunshot wound to his head). Chinn says that the total time of the attack, from the shooter getting out of his car until he was on the ground, lasted no more than three minutes.

Chinn believes the church’s security plan did work that day. He quotes Proverbs 21:31. “There is a Scripture we think of in Proverbs: ‘The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.’ Yes, our training together was effective; and, yes, we were strategically placed. But victory belongs to the Lord.

When [the shooter] moved in, because Dave and Buck had already cleared that hallway, he didn’t have a killing field.

“I can’t tell you, though, how bad it hurt the whole security team that we lost two girls,” Chinn says, his voice suddenly tight. “That’s what we were there for, but we weren’t there when he first pulled the trigger.”

In addition to that feeling of regret over the loss of life, Chinn also recalls the anger he felt as he stood over the shooter. “I had so much anger, so quick. But I would much prefer to have followed the model that was given me by Dave Hagen.”

Hagen had just reached his car and was reaching for his weapon when he heard the words “shooter down” coming from his radio.

“He was reaching for his weapon; but as soon as he heard those words, he reached instead for his medical bag,” Chinn says. “That, to me, is a model of what a church security person should be. It was an instant decision. ‘He’s down. I want to see if I can care for him.’”

Out of the four security team members in the building that day, two had weapons and two did not; yet Chinn emphasizes that all had an important part to play.

“They [Dave and Buck] were focused on safety, while we were focused on security,” he says. “It took both to save lives. I’m just sorry we weren’t able to save all lives that day.”

—Sara Horn

To contact Carl Chinn and learn more about his new book, Strong Tower, or invite him to speak to your church’s security team, e-mail him at cdchinn@msn.com.