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What should you do if you find yourself in a hostage situation?

Police officers conduct an anti-terrorism drill in Zhengzhou in this May 7, 2014 file picture. (Reuters)
Police officers conduct an anti-terrorism drill in Zhengzhou in this May 7, 2014 file picture. (Reuters)

When gunmen entered The Bataclan Theatre in Paris, France and the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, Mali, many hostages didn't realize what was going on at first.

“I didn't see the people, I just heard these consistent gun shots and they just kept going...I said to my friend, 'What the hell is that?' and she said, 'I don't know.' We didn't take it seriously, but then everyone started panicking and that's when we realized this was serious,” eyewitness Ginnie Watson told ABC's 20/20 on the night of the attack at The Bataclan.

Your chances of being taken hostage by armed gunmen are so rare and so beyond daily experience that many people don't actually know what real automatic gunfire sounds like. Experts say your chances of being caught in active shooter situations, like the ones in France and Mali, are akin to your chances of being struck by lightning.

However, we seem to hear about tragic incidents like these with increasing regularity, so much so that some of us are bound to wonder what we would do if we ever found ourselves in these life-threatening situations.

Hostage Taking vs. Active Shooting

Initial news reports characterized the Paris attacks at The Bataclan as a hostage situation when in reality it was an active shooter situation.

“Hostage takers are using you as leverage to get something, while active shooters come in and start shooting and their purpose or intent is not to hold you hostage, but to kill as many people as possible,” says Randy Spivey, a former U.S. Department of Defense executive who is also the founder, president and CEO of the Center for Personal Protection and Safety in Renton, Virginia. This centre trains average people for all kinds of violent threats, including hostage and active shooter scenarios.

The differences between a hostage taking and an active shooting directly affect your chances of getting out alive.

Active Shooting: Get Out, Hide Out, Take Out

The Center for Personal Protection is the largest provider of active shooter training in the world and they tell all their students that surviving an active shooting comes down to three options.

“The first option is to get out. Can I run away?” says Spivey. “If I can't get out, then I'm going to want to hide and barricade myself some place that the shooter cannot get access to me. If I can't do either of the first two things, my third option is to take out. I'm going to want to do whatever I can to confront the shooter and take them down.”

Getting out means when you enter any public place – even your school or office – make a mental note of the windows and doors, along with your distance from them and how long it will take you to get to them in a hurry -- just like you would on an airplane.


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Hiding out doesn't mean hiding under a table; it means separating yourself from the shooter in another room, turning off the lights and barricading the doors and windows with heavy furniture. Stay quiet and if multiple people are in the room with you, spread out, so the shooter has to make decisions. Don't huddle together in a group.

“If the shooter is already in the room, it's a little late,” says Spivey. “If you're just hiding under a chair or a table, you're a sitting duck.”

If you're at a point where it's a matter of life or death – there is no means of escape and nowhere to hide – it's time to make a last resort decision and take the shooter out. But Spivey isn't exactly talking about confronting the shooter one-on-one.

“The power is in the group,” says Spivey. “It's dangerous no matter what and we're not trying to turn people into Rambo. We're trying to say if you just sit there, you're going to get shot.”

Spivey admits this strategy is much more difficult when multiple shooters are present and they're wearing suicide vests, like they were during the Paris attacks. But, if you have a room with 20 people and one person with a gun and those 20 people come up from behind or to the side of that one person, the odds are in favour of the group, not the armed threat.

It may sound impossible, but it has worked in the past. In August 2015, three Americans, a French national and a Briton charged a lone gunman on a train between Amsterdam and Paris, disarming him and tackling him to the ground. Arguably, the most famous occurrence of this type of coordinated action happened on 9/11 when Todd Beamer was heard saying, “Let's Roll!” before leading other passengers in a doomed attempt to regain control of United Airlines Flight 93.

“A completely normal reaction in these situations is to sit frozen in fear and do nothing,” says Spivey. “What we do is train people mentally and psychologically on the willingness to act. In situations like this, people are looking for someone to follow and most people haven't been trained, so someone has to stand up and lead.”

The Center for Personal Protection and Safety has trained companies such as Starbucks, Boeing and Kraft Foods on how to do just that and their videos (like this one) have been used to train members of the FBI and the U.S. Senate on how to survive active shooter situations.

Hostage Taking: Calm, Connect, Capitalize

Though equally as rare as an active shooter scenario, a hostage taking, such as the one involving three suspected armed robbers in Roubaix, France, must be handled differently because hostages come with an inherent value.

“Hostages are traded for political favours, they’re traded for other hostages, they’re traded for medicine, weapons, for everything. It's not just about money,” says Christopher Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator who is now the CEO of The Black Swan Group, a company that applies hostage negotiation tactics to negotiating in the business world.

“[Your captors] aren't going to shoot you because you are a prized commodity and they want you,” continues Voss, author of the upcoming book “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on it.”

California's tactical team rescue a participant as part of a training exercise Oct. 26, 2013. (Reuters)
California's tactical team rescue a participant as part of a training exercise Oct. 26, 2013. (Reuters)

It's because of this Voss suggests staying calm at the moment of capture and throughout the whole ordeal. He recommends never fighting back against your captors because violence is only going to escalate the situation and make things worse for you. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't run from the kidnapping spot if you see an opportunity.

“At the point of being taken, your captors expect you to fight and expect to beat you pretty bad without killing you. Running doesn't carry the same penalty. If you run, there's a really good chance you're going to get away and if they catch you, the penalty for running is far less severe than it would have been if you had fought,” says Voss.

Regardless, if you're able to get away, the one thing you need to do is connect with your captors. How well you're able to get them to see you as a human being can not only determine whether you will survive, but also how well you are treated while in captivity.

“The more you become a human being to them with a name, the less likely they are to mistreat you. The best way to open this door, is to make sure they know your name,” says Voss.

Voss recommends calmly introducing yourself every time they ask you to do something and at the moment you're complying with their orders. Something like, “You want me to put my hands over my head? Happy to do it. I'm so-and-so.” This way, they have to hear your name whether they want to or not and that will start to change the dynamic.

From there, you can start to connect with them on a deeper level and relate to them. Start trying to find common ground and never outwardly show fear or rage. Maintain a respectful, calm exterior.

“You never want to engage them in dialogue they expect and they expect you to beg for your life,” says Voss.

Instead, you want to be respectful without being docile. You don't want to take on the role too much of a victim, but you also want to be a good hostage.

“Being too much of a victim encourages predatory and abusive behaviour from your captors, so it's important to be a compliant hostage without losing your individual identity,” says Voss.

To maintain this balance and stay sane, Voss recommends visualizing in great detail what you plan to do when you're out. “This sort of activity focuses on the future, so it's hopeful and it also keeps you active and alert in a way your captors don't find threatening,” says Voss.

The good news is, 80 per cent of hostages are negotiated out, so make sure you capitalize on opportunities to encourage your captors to stay engaged in the negotiation process.

It’s an extremely unlikely situation, but in the rare event you do find yourself in one of these situations, a little mental preparation could save your life.