Fox Den staff take part in active shooter training to prepare them for the worst

By Brandon Spencer Published: Nov. 1, 2023 at 6:55 PM EDT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Original WAVE Article here) – Weeks after a deadly shooting outside a Louisville bar, the people who work there get trained on what to do in the case of an active shooter.

According to The Fox Den owner Jared Matthews, a security guard shot and killed a man last month.

Now the owner wanted to make sure his staff knew what to do in case something similar were to happen again.

With active shooter situations seeming to happen more and more here locally, businesses like the Fox Den are hoping to be proactive to prevent tragedy.

Matthews said the past year has taught him that the more training there is to protect yourself, the better.

From the Old National Bank shooting to a deadly shooting that occurred outside his bar Fox Den, Matthews feels it’s best to be prepared.

“For the situations to get ready before it happens,” Matthews said. “To be able to read a room, knowing your exits and knowing what you would do and everything was just very proactive.”

Matthews said one of his security guards shot a man who pulled out a gun after threatening and harassing Matthews’ wife and other bar patrons.

The man died from his injuries after the shooting on Oct. 15th.

Now, Matthews wants to ensure his staff gets training that he said isn’t mandatory in Kentucky.

“The state has a STAR training for bartenders to be able to serve and to be able to recognize when somebody has been over-served,” Matthew said. “It’s a great training that I make our bartenders have before they work that way they can spot it. Unfortunately, security doesn’t really have that.”

So Matthews contacted Aaron McGahee and the Rhinox Research Group.

McGahee said the goal of the training is to prevent criminal activity, protect personnel and resources, and teach a response to active threats to save lives.

“We have to push back we have to raise the floor and what I mean by that is we have to train the average individual how to respond to this deadly threat,” McGahee said.

McGahee said it’s best to be proactive.

His training teaches staff how to find potential weapons in a room and protect themselves against a threat.

“I understand that when tragedy strikes we have to be more than just sad. We have to digest from these experiences,” McGahee said. “We have to learn from these experiences we have to internalize what happened and then we have to implement training and education to make sure it does not happen again.”

This training is something that could provide a safe environment that Matthews said every bar owner wants to establish.