“While we don’t have the answers of why, we can certainly explain our best to give you some tools needed to survive an active shooter,” Muterspaw said. “We can also explain to you what our response may look like as well as what you should do when we arrive on a scene quickly so you stay as as safe as possible.”
He said Middletown police will meet today to organize two classes, one for businesses and the other for the community. The classes will take place in the next two weeks and will be instructed by the department’s certified trainers.
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Dates and times will be announced Monday.
“Whether we have 5 people show up or 500 we want to offer this to you,” said Muterspaw, noting the department held a similar class for churches last years and had “a really good turn out.”
Middletown police will also go to any church, school or major business at no cost to perform a preventive safety check.
Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones extended his sympathies Sunday and announced plans for preventing such incidents locally.
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“It is with my most heartfelt condolences I extend to the families that have lost loved ones in these recent events and my thoughts and prayers to the first responders and dispatchers who handled these tragic situations with the professionalism that may have prevented more loss,” Jones said in a statement released Sunday.
Jones said Butler County Sheriff’s Office’s Road Patrol unit has been ordered to make itself more visible and supervisors from the unit have been briefed on where marked units should patrol to make the community feel safer.
Butler County Sheriff’s deputies will be active in more populated areas such as malls, stores and special events.
Jones said he has instructed his command staff to meet “first thing Monday morning” to devise and suggest more preventive measures to prevent the kind of tragedies that have been going on nationwide.
Reaction to the mass shootings was not limited to law enforcement.
Fairfield Church of God posted to Facebook late Saturday evening a graphic urging people to "Pray for El Paso," then followed that 11 hours later on Sunday morning with a "Pray for Dayton" graphic.
The Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati in West Chester Twp. posted Sunday that it “mourns the loss of innocent lives” in this weekend’s two mass shootings.
“We offer our sincere condolences and prayers to the innocent victims and their families during this time of profound loss,” the center posted. “We pray for peace, security, and safety for all of humanity.”
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