AURORA, Colo. — In the wake of a mass shooting, too often, we hear "I knew something was wrong."
Now, the City of Aurora is helping parents and community members to recognize red flags to help prevent dangerous situations before they happen.
As a mom of three, Takeshia Van Ross is used to worrying.
"I worry all the time. They are my life so whenever they're away from me, and I'm not sure what's going on. Of course, I worry," Van Ross said.
The possibility that her kids could be somewhere when a person or situation turns violent is top among those worries. So both she, and her kids' schools, have worked with them on social emotional learning and positive behaviors to try and keep them safe.
"We talk about our feelings, definitely very open and just making sure I know their whereabouts, monitor social media, their friends," Van Ross said.
Officer Tim Wagner, a member of Crisis Response Team Targeted Violence Prevention with Aurora Police, said he knows violent situations, like shootings, are becoming all too common.
"Yeah. Violence is seen more and more frequently as an option or the only option," Wagner said.
To try and prevent a mass violence event from popping up, APD has created a series of trainings for community members to recognize concerning behaviors early on.
Courtney Tassin, Crisis Intervention program manager for the City of Aurora, said these days that knowledge can be life-saving.
"I hope parents walk away with an understanding that things can be done. It's not just this hopeless situation of 'I don't know what to do'. I also really hope that parents take away, early intervention is key. We would much rather be notified of your child maybe having some concerning behaviors or your child's friend exhibiting concerning behaviors while they're still just a behavior and not necessarily an action," Tassin said.
APD already works to prevent those situations.
Wagner said they regularly take in referrals from around the community to quickly connect with people showing concerning behavior since the program began in 2020.
He said it's working. But, they still need the community's help in sounding the alarm early on.
"There's not only a community outcry for it as we see more and more of these unfortunate events," Wagner said. "But people are starting to say, reacting isn't getting us anywhere. We have to be involved. We have to see what else we can do to build that resiliency beforehand so we can stop these events."
Van Ross said she'll be making time to attend this training. She knows it's important.
"You know, being proactive and really knowing what's going on, we can be ahead of whatever may happen," Van Ross said.
The next mass violence prevention training offered by Aurora Police will be held Thursday night at 6 p.m. at the Aurora Central Library at 14949 E Alameda Parkway. The training will focus on a parent's role in preventing violence. It's free and open to the public.
For more information on this and other training events, follow Aurora Police on X here.
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