PSA video: "Run, Hide, Fight" during workplace shooting
(CBS News) Since the Aurora, Colo., massacre two weeks ago, a six-minute YouTube video called "Run, Hide, Fight" has received more than 250,000 hits. It shows you exactly what to do when someone starts shooting in a public place.
It's not your everyday workplace safety video. The lessons revealed by the Houston Mayor's Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security are unlike anything you've ever seen before, including images of a shooter walking into a workplace and beginning to fire.
Mayor Annise Parker had the video produced as part of a disaster preparedness plan, with the help of a $200,000 federal grant.
Parker told CBS News, "These incidents are fortunately very, very rare. But they're not impossible."
Parker said she believes at least two uncomfortable truths were uncovered by the massacre in Aurora: Mass shootings can happen anywhere, anytime. And people caught in crossfire usually have no idea how to protect themselves.
The safety video offers a simple phrase and is designed to save lives.
The phrase is similar to other safety phrases you might remember, such as "Duck and cover" in the event of a nuclear attack and, in the event of a fire, "Stop, drop and roll."
Parker said, "In a crisis situation, you ... don't want to stop and analyze. It's, 'I know what to do.' And it's automatic. The first instinct is to hide. And as we clearly say in the video, the first thing you need to do is get the heck out of there."
Parker says the video was completed before the Aurora shootings, but the massacre convinced her office to release it earlier than planned.
The public response has been enormous, with more than 250,000 YouTube views. And Houston City Hall has been getting requests for the video from cities and businesses coast-to-coast.
Los Angeles Police Lt. Andy Neiman said, "This video gives some very good skills ideas and strategies should you become part of a situation that is dire."
The video's final recommendation: fight back. The video's narrator says, "Fight, act with aggression. Improvise weapons, disarm him and commit to taking the shooter down, no matter what."
Neiman said, "If all else fails, you're going to have to make a decision to fight or attack your attacker for self-preservation."
Parker said the video makes her "sick to (her) stomach that those situations could happen." But, she added, "It's part of what we as citizens need to do to protect ourselves."
As rare as mass shootings are, Parker says if the video saves just one life, it will have been be worth it.
