“We Cannot Make It Like a Fortress”: Houses of Worship Must Be Welcoming But Protected, Security Experts Say
The deadly shooting at Emanuel AME Church focuses attention on safety
By Noreen O'Donnell ••
Dylann Roof, the man accused of killing nine people inside a black church in Charleston, was confronted by relatives of the victims during his first court appearance. Many families spoke of forgiveness in tearful statements.
Nearly three years after a gunman opened fire in a Sikh temple south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing six people, the congregation has formed its own security force, police officers patrol its parking lot and its members have had to learn how to be both welcoming and cautious.
They watched newcomers for suspicious behavior and felt secure again only with time, said Amardeep Kaleka, whose father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, was killed in the August 2012 attack at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek.
“As a congregation we had trouble with trusting and opening our doors up again,” Kaleka, an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, said. “But we did, based on the community’s response. We did start to feel more and more secure as people would come through and say nice things and positive things.”
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People join hands against the backdrop of an American flag as thousands of marchers meet in the middle of Charleston's main bridge in a show of unity after nine black church parishioners were gunned down during a Bible study, Sunday, June 21, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Pallbearers release doves over the casket of Ethel Lance during her burial service, June 25, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guards stand over Sen. Clementa Pinckneyu2019s body as members of the public file past in the Statehouse, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, in Columbia, S.C.
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Doris Simmons, of Charleston, S.C. stands across the street from Emanuel AME Church, the scene of last week's mass shooting, as the sun rises June 26, 2015, in Charleston.
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People join hands against the backdrop of an American flag as thousands of marchers meet in the middle of Charleston's main bridge in a show of unity after nine black church parishioners were gunned down during a Bible study, June 21, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Parishioners pray at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church June 21, 2015, in Charleston, S.C., four days after a mass shooting that claimed the lives of it's pastor and eight others.
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Najee Washington holds a photo of her grandmother Ethel Lance, one of the nine people killed in Wednesday's shooting at Emanuel AME Church, June 19, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Parishioners sing four days after a mass shooting that claimed nine lives at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Church. Elders at the Charleston, South Carolina, church decided to hold the regularly scheduled Sunday school and worship service as they continue to grieve.
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FBI forensic experts work the parking lot behind the AME Emanuel Church, June 19, 2015 in Charleston, S.C.
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Olina Ortega, left, and Austin Gibbs light candles at a memorial in front of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., June 18, 2015.
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Dylann Roof, 21, appears via video before a judge in Charleston, S.C, on June 19, 2015. Roof made his first court appearance Friday, with the victims' relatives making tearful statements.
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From left, Patricia Hamock, of Decatur, Ga., Cynthia Carmichael, of Decatur, Ga., and Angela Dixon, of Marietta, Ga., sing together at the interfaith prayer vigil at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Thursday, June 18, 2015. The vigil is to mourn the killing of nine people from Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. (AP Photo/Rebecca Breyer)
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People of all faiths come together at the interfaith prayer vigil at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Thursday, June 18, 2015. The vigil is to mourn the killing of nine people from Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. (AP Photo/Rebecca Breyer)
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Olina Ortega, left, and Austin Gibbs light candles at a memorial in front of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., June 18, 2015.
The victims include Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Rev. Depayne Middleton Doctor, Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Rev. Daniel Simmons, Myra Thompson, Tywanza Sanders.
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President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, pauses while speaking in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 18, 2015, on the church shooting in Charleston, S.C., prior to his departure to Los Angeles.
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Charleston police Lt. S. Siprko removes flowers from the backseat of a patrol car, Thursday, June 18, 2015 to a makeshift memorial in front of the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. The alleged shooter, Dylann Storm Roof, 21, spent nearly an hour inside the church Wednesday night before killing six women and three men, then tried to outrun an all-night manhunt before a citizen in the next state spotted his car and tipped police, Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said.
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The great-grandnephews of Susie Jackson, who died in Wednesday's shooting, play hide and seek during a family gathering outside Jackson's home June 18, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof sits inside a police car as he is escorted from the Sheby Police Department in Shelby, N.C., June 18, 2015.
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Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof, second from left, is escorted from the Shelby Police Department in Shelby, N.C., Thursday, June 18, 2015. Roof is a suspect in the shooting of several people Wednesday night at the historic The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.
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A group of women pray together at a make-shift memorial on the sidewalk in front of the Emanuel AME Church, Thursday, June 18, 2015 in Charleston, S.C.
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State Senator Vincent Sheheen (D-Kershaw) gets emtional as he sits next to the draped desk of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, Thursday, June 18, 2015, at the Statehouse in Columbia, S.C. Pinckney was one of those killed, Wednesday night in a shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
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A passing motorist looks out her window as she stops at an intersection down the street from the Emanuel AME Church early Thursday, June 18, 2015 following a shooting Wednesday night in Charleston, S.C.
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Police close off a section of Calhoun Street near the Emanuel AME Church following a shooting Wednesday, June 17, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Lisa Doctor joins a prayer circle down the street from the Emanuel AME Church early Thursday, June 18, 2015 following a shooting Wednesday night in Charleston, S.C.
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Worshippers gather to pray down the street from the Emanuel AME Church following a shooting Wednesday, June 17, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Police and EMT fireman outside the historic Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where a gunman opened fire on a prayer meeting killing nine people on June 17, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina.
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A distraught man is comforted as a group of concerned people arrive inquiring about a shooting across the street Wednesday, June 17, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Worshippers embrace following a group prayer across the street from the scene of a shooting Wednesday, June 17, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Noah Nicolaisen, of Charleston, S.C., kneels at a makeshift memorial, Thursday, June 18, 2015, down the street from where a man opened fire Wednesday night during a prayer meeting inside the Emanuel AME Church, killing several people in what authorities are calling a hate crime.
On Wednesday another tragedy gripped the country: Nine people were shot to death during Bible study at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The suspect, Dylann Storm Roof, was arrested in what officials are calling a racially motivated attack. Police say he joined the prayer meeting about an hour before the attack.
Attacks are not new, but what is unprecedented are mass casualties, said Paul Goldenberg, director of the Secure Community Network, a nonprofit organization serving the American Jewish community, and the co-chair of the Department of Homeland Security’s Faith-Based Advisory Council.
“There has been a paradigm change,” he said. “Ten years ago we saw graffiti on synagogues and AME churches and we saw cemetery desecrations. Now we actually see people going into our houses of worship and committing mass killings.”
Security experts say that is it possible to balance openness and vigilance in protecting houses of worship but that congregations must take part in keeping themselves safe.
Churches and synagogues need to train people within the community to spot someone who is planning an attack — the volunteers, ushers, administrators or people who cut the lawns — and to encourage them to speak up immediately if they see something odd, he said.
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“We have only minutes sometimes to save lives,” Goldenberg said. He advocated having video cameras, panic buttons and lighting at night and training in what to do if there is a shooter.
“It’s about empowering members of congregations, not scaring them,” he said. “So they want to continue coming and praying and participating.”
The Department of Homeland Security provides grants to help protect non-profit organizations that are at a high risk of a terrorist attack and that are located within eligible areas. For the 2015 fiscal year, $13 million was available for security improvements.
Shortly after suspected shooter Dylann Roof was brought into custody, President Barack Obama made statements about the nine people killed in a shooting rampage at a historic South Carolina church.
“I think that’s going to have to be carefully worked out and to be honest with you it has not been done so,” he said. “Now we cannot make it like a fortress obviously and we’ll have to work out some other arrangement where we have to be more attentive to security.”
Emanuel AME Church had cameras, which did not prevent the attack but did help in Roof’s capture, he said. Other measures will have to be considered too, he said.
“That’s a tough one in terms of how do you make people welcome especially if you come anywhere near profiling,” he said. “You wouldn’t want to do that.”
Rabbi Seth Limmer of Chicago Sinai Congregation leads a synagogue in the heart of the city’s downtown. Before he arrived, the FBI was called in to investigate what he called a threatening package that he declined to describe further.
“We’re a place that really has to confront these issues in a real way,” he said.
The hope is that the synagogue’s members will think of the building as a sanctuary, not a fortress, he said. Its staff meets with the Department of Homeland Security every year to review its security measures, from entrances and locks to policies should a shooter get in the building.
Windows are of bullet-proof glass. Off-duty police officers who act as security guards open the two set of doors that lead into the building. They know when to open a door and when not to, and when to go outside to talk to a drunk man who thought the synagogue was his apartment one Friday night, Limmer said.
He said his heart would be torn if nine people were killed no matter where, but that the shooting occurred in a church and was racially motivated made the tragedy even worse.
“On top of all the violations of human dignity and propriety that it happened in that sacred space, it’s so appalling,” he said.
Elise Jarvis, the associate director for law enforcement outreach and communal security for the Anti-Defamation League, said that staff and others should learn how to identify suspicious people, activity, objects, letters and packages. Evacuation plans should be in place; contacts with law enforcement made before an emergency takes place.
A secure environment is a welcoming one, she said.
“People want to feel protected and in a safe place,” she said. “We try to have people think about them as not necessarily two incompatible things.”
