In 2017, I watched and studied the horrific events unfold at a mass shooting at a church in the tiny town of Sutherland Springs Texas. The shooter claimed 26 lives and wounded 22 others before a good Samaritan fought back before police arrived. The documented police response time was incredibly fast, 12 minutes, for a rural community. The response time was WAY too long to stop the shooter and didn’t even tell the whole story. The innocent victims were at the mercy of the deranged shooter for 17 minutes which is more like the typical amount of time that it will take before the calvary arrives. This story hit home for me because I was a law enforcement officer and knew the reality of what people were facing when unprovoked violence found them…you’re on your own. I began talking to the church I attended about their critical incident plans since I was a SWAT officer and planning and executing high risk operations was my bread and butter. I found that there was no real plan other than to pray that nothing bad happens here. This set me on the trajectory of developing plans to help faith-based organizations prevent and respond to unprovoked violence and other critical incidents to save lives when seconds count and first responders are minutes away.