The Above is what many TV watchers saw on WDBJ several days ago. Shortly after the cowardly POS took off on several VA State Troopers and then he shot himself in the head. Before he ended his pitiful life and during the above tragic event, he recorded the shooting, in first person POV (point of view). This is incredibly narcissistic, but not something that has been done in the mainstream. So it gives us an insight into the complete occurrence of this incident and allows us to learn from it.
I strong believe that it is disrespectful to the families, as well as those killed in this occurrence, to post the video of the last few moments of their lives, however, the training value is so immense so I will leave this link here and you can watch it if you want to.
What does situational awareness mean to you? Does it mean to be alert at all times in any situation you may find yourself? Actively seeking contacts and discriminating targets? If you are constantly in an actively hostile environment. Some of us are, some of us are not and threats come from many different directions, but most of the time they are from other people. Does this mean treat every person you meet as someone you may have to kill at a moments notice? Does that depend on what you are doing at that time in your life. Alison Parker and Adam Ward were not LEO's or in the MIL, but they were doing their job. They were free for anyone to walk up to and engage with good or bad intentions. They did not actively and properly discriminate the people they came in contact with on a daily basis, especially those who they knew before and may pose a threat to them. The video which the cowardly POS uploaded to facebook showed a good twenty seconds of footage, of him walking up to them, standing there and pointing a pistol at them within their reactionary gap. The person who they were interviewing had a clear line of sight on them, she did not react at all. We may never know why.
“You have the gift of a brilliant internal guardian that stands ready to warn you of hazards and guide you through risky situations.”
― Gavin de Becker
The above quote is from a book called The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence, written by Gavin de Becker, which I read years ago, well worth the time. We all have a sixth sense of sort. We all know, when danger is close and for those us who deal with danger on a daily basis we know we need to listen to these gut feelings, the hair standing up on the back of your head or other quintessential indicators.
You have to actively engage your surroundings and the people who are within the area that can affect your condition. You have to effectively discriminate, you have to be able to recognize dangers as they come, taking immediate and appropriate actions as fast as possible. Was the above situation preventable? Of course it was, unfortunately it would have required those three people to do things that they did not seek training for. They took intentional steps to put themselves into a position of danger. As we all know, a bad situation only has to occur once for the worst to happen, which it did here. Learn from this situation and put safety first. This concept may give you pause, but the fact remains that they did nothing to save themselves from being killed by someone who was known to be hostile towards them. Their situational awareness failed them, they failed themselves. No one becomes switched on overnight or at a moments notice. This is a very clear primer for those who are on the threshold of taking serious steps to protect themselves in their daily lives.
You have to be the first response. You have to be ready, willing and able to actively engage those looking to do you harm. Seek those who will propagate this mindset and effectively train you with those skill sets.