Deadly church shooting in Texas prompts Albany, Americus training sessions

ALBANY — Following Sunday’s deadly shooting at a Texas church, the commander of the Albany-Dougherty Drug Unit has scheduled two active-shooter training sessions for church and school officials.

The first will be conducted at 6 p.m. Nov. 28 at the New Birth Fellowship Church, 2016 Radium Springs Road, Albany. It will be followed by a second session at 6 p.m. Nov. 29 at Union Holiness Church, 901 Aaron Snipes Sr. Drive in Americus.

Maj. Prurince Dice, commander of ADDU, said he was moved to set up the training sessions following the attack Sunday in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Authorities say Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, entered First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs and opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle, killing 26 people ranging in age from 17 months to 77 years. Another 20 people were wounded, media reports say.

“Actually, it (the idea of the training sessions) was after seeing all these shootings, especially this shooting that took place in Texas,” Dice said Monday afternoon. “It’s something that I came up with today.”

CNN reported that among those killed was Kelley’s grandmother-in-law. The news organization reported that Kelley, who was court-martialed by the Air Force for assaulting his spouse and their child and received a bad-conduct discharge after a year of confinement, had domestic problems and had texted his mother-in-law, who sometimes attends the church, before the shooting.

After the massacre, Kelley was confronted, shot and chased by an armed citizen. CNN reported that after Kelley called his father, he shot himself. Authorities had not determined Monday which of the gun wounds killed Kelley.

After the Texas church massacre, Dice said he decided it was “just time” to “train church officials, school officials, day care officials on how to respond to these types of situations.”

Unfortunately with the violence, he said, “We know that it’s needed.”

Dice said he had mentioned the idea of active-shooter training previously, but hadn’t gotten into a planning stage until Monday.

“I mentioned it to a couple of people,” the drug unit commander said. “They’re excited that we’re taking the initiative and doing this. … It’s not one of those things that we’ve discussed doing for a few months or years. It’s time. It’s to the point we need to say what we can do to help.”

Dice said he decided to have a session at the church he attends in Americus and one in the city of Albany where he works.

“I wanted to make sure that I did one here,” he said.

Officials with any church, school, day care or other organization who want information on the active-shooter training sessions may contact ADDU at (229) 430-5150, Dice said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Albany event was originally scheduled for the Albany Civic Center. The location was changed and the story has been updated to reflect that.