The son of Satwant Singh Kaleka who was killed during Sunday’s deadly shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin told reporters that FBI agents have advised him that his father was a hero who was shot and killed while attempting to stop Wade Michael Page with a butter knife. Kaleka told reporters that his father’s actions may have created a distraction which allowed several people to escape the area unharmed.
This aspect of the incident may have relevance to campus shootings as the concept of teaching school employees and in some cases, students to resist an active shooter with force as a last resort is currently a hotly debated topic. As is common in mass casualty acts of violence, we may not have confirmed details of this aspect of the incident for some time. Evaluating these types of reactions for different cases may help provide a more solid understanding of what techniques may and may not be practical for training people to survive major acts of violence such as Sunday’s tragedy.
In a soon to be published 5,000 word white paper, Steve Satterly and I discuss some of the pros and cons of this approach. The paper is the result of 18 months of research and will be available at no cost on the Safe Havens website later this week.