Avoid, Deny, Defend: Video Shows What to Do in Active Shooter Situation

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Would you know how to handle yourself if there were to be an “active shooter” situation unfolding in your building on campus?

A new video is now available to show members of the campus community how to respond if someone with a gun opens fire in a campus building. Part of the video is graphic and intended to provide a sense of what might happen in such a scenario.

“‘Avoid. Deny, and Defend’ are the three words and actions you need to remember if there is an active shooter situation on the U of A campus,” said University of Arkansas Capt. Matt Mills, campus emergency manager . “This scripted and simulated video shows a very real scenario as it could happen. Viewers will be startled at the realism.”

The video shows students, faculty and staff going about their daily lives in a building on campus when a person with a gun makes his way into the building and begins to open fire on people sitting in the lobby.

All of the actors in the video are students, faculty or staff who volunteered to be part of the production. The actor portraying the active shooter is a former UAPD officer who agreed to be part of the video. The officers in the video are all members of the University of Arkansas Police Department.

“In the final product all of it feels so real; the screams, the panic, the gunshots, and the shooter's incessant and frightening yelling," said Danny Henkel, graduate assistant for UA Productions, a student design and video group in the Division of Student Affairs. “It’s going to be hard for some people to watch because of that.”

The video was commissioned by the UAPD and created by UA Productions.

The UA Productions crew, made up of three undergraduate video producers and a graduate assistant, took on the script writing, storyboard creation and the video shoot itself, as well as the editing and post production work.

“The active shooter video - Avoid, Deny Defend - was UA Production's biggest production to date,” Henkel said. “The months of planning, script writing, and storyboard creation proved to be well worth the work. In order for the campus to take the message seriously our goal was to make the video as realistic as possible. We knew if it came across as cheesy it would not have the same impact.”

“The University of Arkansas Police Department was proud to work with the Division of Student Affairs on the creation of this video project,” Mills said. “The planning process was arduous but we wanted to make sure that the end product provides the information necessary to respond to an active shooter event on campus.”

Emergency procedure information for the University of Arkansas can be found at the university’s website with emergency information.

“We anticipate there will be some questions that the video might raise,” Mills said. “Please send any of those questions to me at mrmills@uark.edu.”

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.