Security well prepared for attack, says Cornwall Centre

REGINA – It was business as usual at Cornwall Centre on Wednesday – a far cry from the previous evening, when four people were stabbed and security staff were left to deal with a chaotic and potentially dangerous situation.

“From when the call came in until the assailant was handcuffed on the floor was right around one minute,” said Cornwall Centre general manager Doug Kozak.

Cornwall’s security team is getting full marks from the Regina Police Service in response to an attack that appears random.

David Hyde was Cornwall’s head of security for eight years and now works as an independent security consultant in Ontario. In his career Hyde says he’s never seen an incident like this.

Hyde points out the security staff that some may view as “wannabe cops” are actually highly-trained.

“In many malls in Canada, the security and police get together on an annual basis and they go through drills,” Hyde said. “We call them active-shooter drills or active-attacker drills to deal with issues like what happened in Cornwall Centre.”

Kozak says all Cornwall security staff take a training program with the RPS, also playing out scenarios with bomb threats and evacuations annually, though weapons threats aren’t practiced as often.

Police say there’s no reason to increase the presence of downtown beat cops.

“We try to be very visible. We try to be in public places as much as we can,” said deputy chief Bob Morin. “We’ll continue to deploy our resources as we have.”

Morin doesn’t believe there’s any reason to fear shopping at Cornwall Centre.