A metro Atlanta police department is hosting an active shooter training course this month following two mass shootings across the country that left more than 30 people dead.
Dunwoody police’s “Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events” training is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 22 at 6:30 p.m. The department has hosted similar courses in the past, the most recent of which was in June.
Police spokesman Sgt. Robert Parsons said officials had been thinking about planning another class, but moved up the date in response to the weekend shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.
“We definitely want to offer this class as often as we can,” Parsons said.
» El Paso Walmart shooting: Death toll rises to 22, hospital officials say
» Dayton, Ohio shooting: 11 remain hospitalized after gunman kills 9, injures dozens
The training outlines how to proactively prepare and handle the threat of an “aggressive intruder or active shooter,” and what to do in the event of one, the police department said.
The course, which will take place at the Dunwoody police headquarters on Ashford Dunwoody Road, is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Over the weekend, 22 people were killed by a gunman at a busy Walmart in El Paso, police said. Less than 24 hours later, a man opened fire outside a bar in Dayton, killing his sister and eight others, before he was killed by police.
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The shootings came days after four people were shot and killed at a festival in Gilroy, California.
The El Paso and Dayton shootings were the 21st and 22nd mass killings of 2019 in the U.S., according to the Associated Press/USA Today/Northeastern University mass murder database. Including the two latest attacks, 125 people had been killed in the 2019 shootings.
— Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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