3 people, including 15-year-old, shot at Kennywood

https://www.wtae.com/article/emergency-response-ascends-upon-kennyw...k/41371801

Yeah, how’d that gun get past the gate? I’ve always thought KW has one of the strictest and time consuming security screenings. And this was right in the park, not somewhere in the parking lot.
This is going to be a nightmare for them, and unfortunately may only add to the overall negative impression a lot of locals have now. It’s a damn shame.

There are areas along the perimeter where one could theoretically pass a gun through the fence.

I’m assuming Evolve scanners keep a backup so they can review the day’s footage and figure out a) who did it and b) if they actually failed to detect the gun.

This is such a horrible failure by security. They’re going to have to go public with how it happened and steps taken to avoid it in the future. Should also make a chaperone policy.

What is Kennywood’s security policy? Most parks don’t search every single bag and we all know metal detectors amount to theatrics. Didn’t someone have a gun in Magic Kingdom a few years ago?

Disney Springs, which at the time didn’t have metal detectors, it does now.

That was in June, the incident I was thinking of was actually at Animal Kingdom in 2013 where a dude left a gun on a ride.

Kennywood is using the Evolv scanners, same as Disney and others. Larger bags, coolers, etc, are checked. My wife was pulled aside once to have her Fanny pack checked because something must have looked weird. They also have a chaperone policy after 4pm all year and I’ve seen solo kids get turned away at the gate.

At just about every amusement park metal detector, and the concert I went to 2 days ago, I'm told not to remove my phone and keys. I'm honestly not sure the things are even turned on.

Evolve devices are not metal detectors. They're more like the airport body scanners. If someone got a gun into the park, I'm fairly skeptical that the scanners didn't catch it. I would sooner believe that it got in another way.

At times the security staff seems overwhelmed trying to keep an eye on the screen and who is coming through but I am guessing that the gun got in another way as well.

I feel like the coward threatened someone to show up to Kennywood, stashed a gun near the fencing then retrieved it.

The whole thing sucks. First public night of Phantom Fright Nights and this happens.

The system makes noise when it sees something. You don't have to pay close attention, it's obvious when there's a problem.

I realize there’s no sound reasoning in this situation but who in the hell plans an attack or a revenge assault at a freaking amusement park of all places? It makes no sense, starting with the fact that they all have to pay admission to get in. And then go to the trouble of acquiring a gun some kind of way. I mean, what happened to good old fashioned street fights?
And I’m not trying to be flip- I can see that it happens and not only at Kennywood and not just occasionally in years past. I seriously wonder what is wrong with these people and why is this a trend?

this is a systemic failure of planning and security

if a park doesn't have the staffing to ensure the safety of the guests, they have to stop admitting guests

the same way theaters have a legal maximum capacity

What do you propose, enough security guards to cover every single square inch of the park at any given time? No park has the resources to do that. To some degree we have to rely on the decency of other human beings to remain safe at amusement parks but that is becoming a rarity these days.

And every single public building in America has a capacity limit figured into its construction and code. That’s why you see info like that posted not only in theatres but also schools, department stores and McDonalds as well. And I'm pretty sure that noted capacity is not a limit set to keep people from shooting each other. It’s more like fire safety or something.
Even if you did have security personnel to cover every square inch or provide private escort service to each customer it still wouldn’t stop someone from pulling out a gun to shoot someone else if they wanted to.

Before we start developing solutions to the "problem" I think we first need to identify the problem to be solved. And in this case I think we CAN start with the gun, because the park is supposed to be gun-free, and that basic element was violated. So how did the gun get into the park? Did the scanner at the entrance miss it? Was it passed over or through the fence? Was it taken from an armed officer inside the park? I think until we have some kind of a plausible answer to that question, we can't really find fault with any particular element of the park's security plan.

Could it be as simple as there now being a huge hole in the fence that keeps people from going through but allows objects to pass, because the fence is no longer blocked by the Bayern Kurve? Does the reconfigured security checkpoint (now that they no longer use metal detectors at the turnstiles) have an unprotected pass-point? Where did the gun come from, and is there any way to take it through the scanners without it being detected?

I also wonder, based on the injuries reported, if the gunfire was accidental. We're talking lower body injuries, as I understand it; that suggests to me either the gunman was a poor shot, or wasn't aiming. Maybe didn't expect the gun to go off, or perhaps even dropped it. My understanding is that the gun has been found, but the shooter has not.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Sometimes an attack isn't planned ahead, just on short notice. Poor guy walked into the bar at the end of our street not realizing someone who had a major beef with him lived in the apartment building across the street and called a buddy to come take advantage of his chance finding. Guy ended up unconscious half in the road in the slush in front of our house at 2am. I imagine it's possible someone saw someone at the park they had been "looking for" and called a buddy to meet them at the fence with a weapon. I don't know but could be a possibility.

Kennywood was my home park as a kid and two things always stood out about it that made it distinctly different from other amusement parks. They had metal detectors and they didn't sell a season pass. This was before 9/11, so the only places I saw a metal detector as a kid would be at Kennywood or an airport.

I'm not saying that Kennywood needs to hire a personal bodyguard for everybody, but with most business facing staffing shortages, they need to be responsible and say they don't have enough employees to ensure the safety of the guests.

Obviously we don't have all the details of how a gun got into the park, so let's go with Occam's razor. The simplest explanation is that they walked right in the main entrance with the gun, the park was understaffed, extremely busy, and they couldn't properly check everybody without creating a massive line in the parking lot.

That's not the simplest answer at all. It is very, very unlikely that those devices missed a gun. I'm very familiar with how they work and what they "see." These are not magnetometers... you can walk 3,600 people through those per hour with one person monitoring (and someone else to wand and look at bags when necessary). If you're asserting that staffing the gate is the problem, you lack context.