At least 31 people were killed in mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio last weekend, a tragedy that hits close to home for a Stuart resident.

Stuart Police Chief Dave Reha has given active shooter training at schools and other organizations across the country, and he says the trend of mass shootings is unfortunately not going away anytime soon, “I grew up in Littleton, Colorado and I was a freshman the year that Columbine happened, and so we saw it first hand. You know I watched the helicopters fly around over our house and I had friends that were in that school and family friends that lost people. And so we saw it as a community and the one thing that I learned from Columbine going through it, was it can literally happen anywhere.”

Reha adds that warning signs can usually be seen in potential shooters, and he encourages people to contact law enforcement if they believe a dangerous situation may occur. The West Central Valley School District as well as all other school districts in the state were recently required to adopt an emergency operations plan which includes active shooter response. Reha says he was a part of that planning, and this month Officer Katie Guisinger and himself will be training to become school resource officers for the District, to help prevent a similar tragedy from happening in the community.