It’s an operator’s worst nightmare: an active shooter situation.
Yet, what happens when this is false alarm? A rash of security threats this spring at U.S. Zoos have put law enforcement, first responders, and attraction’s own emergency procedures to the test. Panic and hysteria can be replaced by order and calm—with proper planning.
April 15, 2022, started off as a busier than usual Good Friday for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. With school out ahead of the Easter holiday weekend, approximately 14,000 people were at the zoo when a situation in the facility’s parking lot—about 120-140 yards from the front gate—escalated after a suspect was tased.
“We don't actually know what made guests think that this was an active shooter,” says Sam King, operations director of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. “This was the triggering of it, but we don't know if it was the sound, if it was the officers, if it was just the drama of what was happening out there.”
Within 30 seconds, guests were flooding into the attraction’s front gate; that set a chain reaction into motion. Guests panicked and moved deeper into the central core of the zoo. Within moments, they spread into all corners, running and seeking shelter to hide.
“We think of it logically,” says Anthony Sabo, vice president of Zoombezi Bay and guest services at the Ohio facility. “We think of what is going to happen. But, what we learned is that it is very illogical what is actually happening.”
Guests packed into any safe space they could find—from a 10-foot x 10 foot employee bathroom, to a catered event pavilion—all seeking shelter wherever they could it. Even the zoo’s carousel became a spot to hide.
“[The ride’s exterior fence] is only about 42 inches high, but they felt the need to be high jumpers that day and jumped right over and onto a moving carousel ride, [because] that's where they thought [they would be the] safest,” Sabo recalls.
Nine minutes after the taser incident, authorities determined there was no active shooter and there was no threat to the public or animals at the zoo. But in those nine minutes, zoo patrons panicked. Fences were broken, locks were pushed open, and several stress-induced injuries occurred.
During the perceived crisis, the zoo learned several key takeaways:
Running Tabletop Exercises
Tabletop exercises can help facilities practice with local law enforcement the best way to handle crisis situations involving guests.
“Some of us have probably had simulations inside our parks with local law enforcement, first responders, but as prepared as we try to be with those, none of those things can replicate or simulate the confusion and the panic that comes with something like this,” Sabo says, “So this is really the closest you can get to this type of situation without it being the real thing. So it's an amazing opportunity to learn from folks who experience this firsthand.”
In addition to caring about your guests, the panelists shared the importance of caring about your employees.
Taking Care of Staff
Staff satisfaction impacts the guest experience before, during, and after a crisis. What can you as an operator do to ensure that your employees are cared for after a traumatic event, and ensure they want to and are ready to come back to work?
Even though there were no lasting injuries, many employees truly believed they were in a high-stakes situation while dealing with the guest reactions.
“There were a handful of us who felt like, ‘All right, let's go back and do it again tomorrow,’” Harper says. “‘We're ready to answer.’ And then there were people who needed more time. And those were all things that we worked with our HR team and everyone else to understand what that looked like, and that no one's story was the same.”
Harper says because guests perceived the threat as real, they quickly sought shelter in non-guest areas.
“[Employees] who were in animal areas saw guests [become] super close to their animals in places that they shouldn't be. That can become trauma in itself [for staff],” Harper says.
The train operator had to stop their ride unimpededly after turning a corner and finding a truck parked on the tracks. Harper says each situation “required very individualized empathy and care and compassion for what they went through.”
Having a Preexisting Relationship with First Responders
Transparency and word of mouth can help combat negative press and ensure that information is accurately communicated. More than 70 guests at the zoo made outgoing calls about an active shooter situation.
“We do have really, really good relationships with our local law enforcement agencies, including with the public information officer for our local sheriff,” Sabo says. “They were reaching out to us and we were reaching out to them to coordinate a response. About an hour after all of this started [we shared] via social media and traditional media, that obviously, this was not an active threat. And once we were able to say that, then things started to calm down a little bit.”
The April 2022 incident resulted in lasting changes for other attractions. AJ Harper went on to become the vice president of operations for Fort Worth Zoo where he used the lessons learned in Columbus to build up that zoo’s security team.
Review Current Emergency Plans
Harper points out that operators can use similar takeaways to look at any holes in their already existing systems. In his new position, Harper says he found opportunities to strengthen his new facility’s plan.
“Building that security has become my focus from the beginning,” Harper says. He suggests that operators of all sizes need a mass alert system, trained dispatchers, and additional radio reviewers—all things he put into motion after arriving at Fort Worth.
The collaborative spirit of IAAPA continues to unite members and look for best practices.
“Just keep talking to other organizations and facilities and parks about what they do … three years after that, I'm still talking and asking people about it because somebody out there probably has a better idea than you do, or somebody's thought about it in ways that you haven't,” King says.
The information above was presented at the “Good Friday Turns Bad: Lessons from a Falsely Reported Active Shooter Event” EDUSession at IAAPA Expo 2025, presented by Sam King, operations director, Zoombezi Bay; Anthony Sabo, vice president of Zoombezi Bay; AJ Harper, vice president of operations, Fort Wayne Zoo; and Kris Reyes, director of external affairs and strategic development at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
