Conway church to host FBI symposium to address violence in houses of worship

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reaching out to churches across South Carolina, including one in Conway, sharing lessons learned from recent active shootings affecting the faith-based community.

Agents will present a Situational Awareness Symposium for Houses of Worship from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday at Langston Baptist Church, 763 Highway 905 in Conway.

The symposium, open to the public, will cover topics that will help clarify who is an active shooter and address pre-incident behavioral indicators. It will also address ways to deal with the national media in the wake of such a tragedy, how to support families of victims and the law enforcement officers involved, as well as other areas of crisis management. Additionally, agents will address the use of improvised explosive devises or IEDs by active shooters.

Special Agent Don Wood, spokesman for the FBI’s Columbia field office, said the symposiums are designed to educate and get the faith-based community thinking about their church security.

“These symposiums are something the Columbia field office generated on its own,” Wood said, noting the agency began the presentations after the June 17 shooting at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. That incident left nine black church goers dead and one wounded. Dylann Roof, 21, was arrested and charged with the mass murders.

Wood said the FBI received authority to investigate mass shooting events after a change in the law followed the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. That shooting left 27 people, including 20 children, dead. Previously, he said, the FBI’s role was to provide laboratory and technical support to local law enforcement during the investigations.

Thursday night’s symposium marks the fourth in the series of presentations born in the wake of the Charleston tragedy. Presenters will include Special Agent Rob Chadwick and David Thomas, special agent in charge of the FBI in South Carolina. The FBI will be scheduling more symposiums in the coming months throughout the state.

Hampton Drum, pastor at Langston Baptist Church, said an officer with the Horry County Sheriff’s Office and church member Bill Knowles presented him with an invitation from Horry County Sheriff Phillip Thompson to host the meeting. Drum said his church can seat 2,500 people and the meeting, the first of its kind in the county, is expected to draw a large crowd.

Drum said when he received the invitation, he knew it was something needed for his congregation.

“As far as I’m concerned, when the gunman shot members of the Charleston church, he shot my brothers and sisters in Christ,” Drum said. He said he hopes the symposium will help his congregation develop strategies and wisdoms in the unlikely event tragedy strikes his church.

Langston nor Drum are completely unfamiliar with scary incidents. Drum, who has served the local church for five years, said he has dealt with disgruntled individuals several times through the years who have tried to hijack his church services.

“It has only been someone with an agenda who was verbal but it is always alarming,” Drum said.

Most recently, he noted that a man who “lives near the church and appears to be mentally challenged” presented himself at the beginning of a Sunday worship service being loud and irrational. Church members were able to escort him out until law enforcement arrived.

“We saw it as a God send for us to prepare better,” Drum said. In response, he said the church formed a Safe Church Committee to develop strategies to keep their church congregation safe.

Drum said the pure nature of a church, which welcomes visitors openly, leaves it vulnerable.

“We’re very passive, friendly and loving and for someone to take our kind hospitality and turn it into something violent is the ultimate betrayal,” he said.

Drum encourages people of all denominations to attend Thursday’s meeting. “We feel it is a critical issue. If we address this, we can all feel better about our community,” he said.

This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 3:49 PM with the headline "Conway church to host FBI symposium to address violence in houses of worship."