A man armed with an AK-47–style rifle attempted to enter Mayhill Baptist Church on November 6, 2025, while members of the congregation was meeting inside. According to the Otero County Sheriff’s Office, the suspect discharged his weapon multiple times toward the church building while trying to gain entry but was unsuccessful.
He fled in a dark blue van and was later stopped and arrested by deputies on U.S. Highway 82. The suspect was booked on multiple felony charges, including Desecration of a Church, Shooting at a Dwelling or Occupied Building, and Criminal Damage to Property. No injuries were reported.
Why was he unsuccessful? Locked doors!
We have now seen several active shooter situations in the past few months that have been thwarted simply by locking the doors. Yet there are still many churches that refuse to lock doors once services start.
Some say it’s not welcoming; others say it’s inconvenient.
I would argue both of those are totally inaccurate.
It is welcoming.
By locking the doors, you require a person, a trained person, to be stationed at the door while the service is in process. The person at the door is a welcome sight for all who enter and most appreciated by those running late.
They can make suggestions as to where to sit that will disturb the services the least, and they can also greet any new visitors that may be late since they were unsure of start times at your house of worship.
The person at the door is also available to surveil the parking lot in many cases. By keeping an eye on the outside, they are able to alert the congregation to any incoming danger well before it is an immediate incident. Time and distance are your friends when it comes to an attack, allowing the alert to be made.
However, time and distance are also your enemies since it takes time for law enforcement to arrive due to the distance that they are from the building. Matter of fact, the national average to have First Responders arrival is 7-10 minutes. The more rural the building is, the longer that time gets.
Most active shootings are over well before law enforcement arrives, so you need to conduct in-house training on what to do when trouble shows up at your door. The goal is to keep trouble outside your door, and you do that by locking that door.
As far as inconvenience, by locking the doors and having someone there to open the doors for visitors once vetted, it shows that the organization is alert to possible threats and they care about the safety of every person walking through that door.
This is a calming reaction to those in attendance that should instill trust in the leadership that they are taking proactive measures to provide the safest environment to gather, worship, teach and fellowship.
Parents often mention that they are happy to have security in a building that they are sometimes separated from their children while they go to Sunday School or to other classes or gatherings.
The other aspect of this program is that if someone is scoping out your property for future bad deeds, this shows that they are up against a hard target that has taken proactive precautions. When bad guys see this, they often realize that this location may not be the best place for an attack.
Now I mentioned above vetting visitors. The person that is stationed at the door needs to be a trained person that is alert to situational awareness. They can be pleasant and cordial to people, but they need to be alert and attentive, observing both inside and outside the building.
This position is not a greeter; it is an observation point. The observer needs to be able to contact the leadership to alert them of any potential threat incoming. This is where radios come in, and that’s another article in the future. In short, if you do not have radios in your house of worship, get some!
We pray that no house of worship is ever in need of this training, but we have seen that it appears that the incidents are increasing and not decreasing. We all must prepare to face evil at our properties.
The Bible not only agrees with the concept of securing our houses of worship, but it also actually commands us to protect those that are entering our buildings. Prepare with training from a reputable source.
Terry Berringer is the owner operator of Church Emergency Consulting in Pittsburgh, www.churchemergency.com. If you are in need of advice or training for your house of worship, you can contact him at terry@churchemergency.com.
