Annunciation Catholic School Shooting

The Annunciation Catholic School Shooting: A Different Label, The Same Evil

By Chris Grollnek, Active Shooter Expert · Active Shooter Prevention Project, LLC (ASPP™)

We often struggle with what to call these tragedies: mass shootings, active shooter events, executions, domestic terrorism, or mass casualty incidents. In truth, the name doesn’t matter; the outcome is always the same: innocent lives taken, families devastated, and communities forever changed as we have seen in the Annunciation Catholic School Shooting tragedy.

The Annunciation Catholic School event is being clouded by debates over details that distract from the core truth. None of these side arguments lessens the fact that evil visited an unsuspecting place and took the lives of two children while changing the course of the 17 other injured parties, primarily children, and all who were present. We must look at the facts in context:

• It happened in a church, a place of worship and safety, sadly, not the first.

• It happened in a school, once again reminding us that children are never spared.

• The attacker was transgender, as were several others involved in attacks over the past five years.

• It involved a rifle, though many of these attacks historically use other firearms.

• The motive tied to political and ideological grievances is a reality, however inconvenient it may be to acknowledge.

• The attacker struggled with mental health challenges, a recurring theme across many incidents.

• And like over 90% of attackers, this person telegraphed their intent, announcing their desire to kill and harm, only to be ignored.

These are the facts; however, they are not where our focus should remain.

We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by labels, demographics, or political arguments. What matters most is that children were murdered, families were shattered, and a community was left traumatized forever. To argue endlessly about identity, weapons, or politics is to miss the larger point: these tragedies continue to happen because we remain focused on reaction instead of prevention.

Our work, whether in schools, houses of worship, businesses, or government, must be rooted in prevention. That means acting on the warning signs that are almost always present. It means training leaders, parents, educators, and communities to recognize threats before they escalate. It means creating systems where cries for help, red flags, or open declarations of intent to harm are never dismissed.

Prevention isn’t about winning a political argument or choosing the correct terminology. It’s about ensuring these tragedies do not occur in the first place. That requires vigilance, education, and the courage to intervene before a crisis begins.

The path forward is not found in partisanship or endless debate; it is found in collective action to prevent the next tragedy. The Annunciation Catholic School shooting, like so many others, forces us to confront the uncomfortable truth: we knew enough to stop it, but we didn’t; that cannot be our legacy.

What does the evidence say about the window before?

The claim that the signs were there is not sentiment. The FBI studied the pre-attack behaviors of active shooters and found that each one displayed roughly four to five observable concerning behaviors over weeks and months before the attack, and that those behaviors were most often seen by classmates, coworkers, teachers and family rather than by police. Across the 528 active shooter incidents recorded between 2000 and 2024, that pattern holds.

The people best positioned to interrupt an attack are almost never the people we train. They are the ones sitting next to it.

Why does a house of worship carry different exposure?

A church, a synagogue, a mosque and a temple share a problem no other venue has in the same way. They are open by doctrine. Turning away a stranger runs against the entire point of the place, and every congregation understands that instinctively, which is why the usual advice about controlling access lands badly and often goes ignored.

The workable answer is not a locked door. It is a named person who owns a concern when someone raises one, a written route for that concern to travel, and a congregation that knows both exist. One congregation had a member who had already prepared for the worst, and it changed the outcome: Dr. John Cheng. We set that out in house of worship security.

What should a school or parish actually do differently?

Three things, in order, and none of them require a budget line to start.

Give the worry somewhere to go

Somebody is nearly always uneasy before an incident. Ask your leadership one question: if a parent, a student or a parishioner were worried about someone this week, who would they tell, and what is that person obliged to do about it? If the answer takes longer than a sentence, that is the gap.

Find the exposures that cost nothing to fix

The propped door, the side entrance nobody watches after four o’clock, the badge that stopped being checked. A documented vulnerability assessment finds those and writes them down, so the next person can verify them without starting over.

Train the leader as well as the room

The decision that keeps a threat from ever reaching the response layer belongs to a person with authority, and that decision can be rehearsed. The work of an active shooter expert lives in that earlier stretch, not on the day.

Where does this fit in the P.R.O. Model™?

The P.R.O. Model™ is Prevention, Response, Options, in that order, selected by the U.S. Department of Justice as “A” national standard for 2022–2025 and again for 2026–2030, then in use at some installations and commands across the Department of Defense. Response training is legitimate and necessary work. The error is buying response alone and recording it as though the risk has been addressed. That argument, with the seven questions to put to any provider, is at prevention vs response.

Sources
Federal Bureau of Investigation. A Study of the Pre-Attack Behaviors of Active Shooters in the United States Between 2000 and 2013. 2018.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Active shooter incident reports, 2000 through 2024.
U.S. Department of Justice, P.R.O. Model™ selection, 2022–2025 and 2026–2030.

This is why we must remain committed to the journey toward Destination #NEVERHERE™, where prevention is the standard, where warnings are heeded, and where evil finds no opportunity. Annunciation Catholic School Shooting

#NEVERHERE™ #ChrisGrollnek #ActiveShooterExpert #TheOriginalActiveShooterPrevention #PreventionFirst