John Wilborn, back row center, GM of the Curtis Culwell Center, Garland, Texas, gathers his talented staff on the steps of the venue which made headlines two weeks ago. (VT Photo)
REPORTING FROM GARLAND, TEXAS — In the aftermath of a May 3 attack at the Curtis Culwell Center in the Dallas suburb of Garland that left two assailants dead and one officer injured, venue General Manager John Wilborn said that the potential for further casualties was prevented thanks to preparation in advance of the emotionally charged event. The event was a contest held by organizer Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI that involved cartoon drawings of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
Since that event, Wilborn has had time to reflect on what happened and what might have been done differently in between planning for high season of graduations at the arena, multiple media interviews about the incident and participation in a webinar hosted by the International Association of Venue Managers.
“The plan we had in place worked,” Wilborn said days after the attack in which Phoenix gunmen Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi drove from Arizona to Texas wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles. The two were killed after they got out of their car on the street outside the Culwell Center and opened fire. A traffic officer working after-hours as security for the event and armed only with a service pistol returned fire and killed both men. Four other officers also returned fire while one Garland Independent School District officer was shot in the ankle.
“What I think is important for everyone to know is that these individuals never reached our property,” Wilborn said. “They were killed on the street. They never got on our property.”
Between 150 and 200 people attended the late Sunday afternoon event at the 7,000-seat arena with an adjoining conference center. It started at 5 p.m. and ended two hours later. But as events go, this was one that had drawn plenty of scrutiny.
Attackers were stopped and killed outside the conference center, never getting past the sidewalk. (VT Photo)
In January, the pro-Islamic Sound Vision Foundation’s Stand With the Prophet in Honor and Respect event was held at the venue and drew hundreds of protesters. In response, Geller’s AFDI rented a ballroom in the conference center in which some 350 entries of cartoon drawings of Muhammad were judged with the winner receiving $10,000. Free speech protected by the First Amendment and religious liberties met head-on.
“We have done a number of faith-based events,” Wilborn said. “The same Islam group had been here years before. We do over 60 Muslim or Islamic events during the course of a year, so that event in January was nothing new for us. I don’t believe that Geller’s group came here because we do Muslim or Islamic events. I don’t know this to be factual, but the group did not like some of the particular speakers they were having in January.”
FREE-SPEECH GATHERING
Wilborn said that the venue is bound by federal and state laws to not discriminate against possible renters and events. The Garland ISD board met on May 11 and reinforced the protocol to teach and protect the First Amendment. The AFDI event was billed as a free-speech gathering.
Wilborn said “yes and no” when asked whether he was caught off-guard by Weller’s group wanting to have their event at the Culwell Center.
“They were challenging whether or not we would rent to everyone. That was evident,” he said.
“I hate to do ‘what ifs?’” Wilborn added. “This was one time out of 3,000 events at the facility where we have had an incident. It’s unfortunate.
“But we were ready for the event. Entrances were blocked to the facility and attendees had to have both a parking ticket and entry ticket to get in. There were no walk-up sales because everything was pre-sale. That way the organizers had a list of all attendees coming and could do background checks themselves and have all their information beforehand.”
The contract for the event was handled by the venue’s sales team and approved by Wilborn.
“That’s basically where the buck stops,” Wilborn said. “The district employs me to do a job in running a facility but I have rules and regulations that I have to abide by. It comes down to if you refuse a rental to anyone then you open yourself up to a lawsuit. Do we really want to spend all the taxpayers’ dollars being tied up in court? Those are some of the things that you have to weigh.
“I mean, if somebody rents the place and tells us up front, okay, we’re going to host an event and then we’re going to commit a murder … well, of course that’s going to be a different type of situation. That is something we would not entertain here at the facility.”
The Islamic group that met at the venue in January is a Chicago-based organization, and Wilborn said it is common for outside churches to partner or align with local groups in renting his facility. Many are national organizations with local branches.
Individuals attending the May 3 event drove in to the west lot and parked on the north lot next to flag poles just outside the main administration entrance. From there, the group walked a brief distance on a sidewalk leading to the conference center, where check-in, a bag check and wanding took place along with another ticket check.
Of Wilborn’s full-time staff of 19, just he and an operations employee were present for the event. Other staffers were present earlier in the day to attend a training session for the venue’s upcoming heavy schedule of high school and college graduation ceremonies, along with security contractor Contemporary Services Corporation and local police, fire and EMT personnel.
“We conducted the annual training for our graduations earlier that day, and upon completion of that we made sure that everybody was gone and off the lot at that time,” Wilborn said.
Event Services Manager Kevin Welch collaborated with onsite officers who schedule off-duty police. Numbers for security are decided upon and presented for Wilborn’s approval.
“It is customary for all events that they get together and decide on what our coverage should be for each event,” Wilborn said. “I don’t mean just that event, but any event.
“We do that early on because we pass the cost along to the client. They can say yea or nay whether the cost is too much and they want to drop out or they pay the bill and come in with the event.”
Wilborn emphasized that it is his staff which comes up with security billing, and for the AFDI event the figure was $9,600. Geller added her own private security team as did fellow speaker and Dutch politician Geert Wilders.
“She didn’t want to pay it,” Wilborn said. “She wasn’t happy with the bill. That’s public knowledge that she was not happy with the bill. But if you’re going to rent the Curtis Culwell Center, you go with the bill we send and the numbers that we have. We are still trying to protect the facility at the end of the day. Now if individuals want to add to what we already determine they are welcome to do that. But the numbers are ours.”
Drawings for the contest had already been mailed in and were brought to the venue by Geller’s group. Wilborn was stationed at the rear of the facility watching the proceedings on a television camera. He said that he floated from the entrance door of the conference center to the back of the facility but never actually entered the ballroom where the event was ongoing. Another staffer and two part-time employees were setting up for a Monday event in the arena.
CELLPHONES & SECURITY
The event ended early. Wilders arrived just before he spoke and left immediately afterwards, while Geller was present for the duration. Many attendees had already left the premises while others were walking to their cars when at approximately 6:50 Wilborn heard a radio feed from a nearby policeman standing next to him saying “Officer down!” The next call was that the assailants were down, and Wilborn estimates in all it was just 15 seconds from start to finish.
Those in the parking lot and those inside the venue were immediately ushered to the arena floor which served as a safe area. Or so it seemed.
“We saw a hole in our process because people were doing Instagrams and sending out recordings to the outside world,” Wilborn said. “Individuals and patrons were sending snapshots and sending information out as to where we had taken them, which is open to everybody.”
Wilborn said that the event garnered a strong local and national media presence and that those individuals who were on the arena floor respected the situation by not disclosing the location.
“The question is, should we confiscate those items from individuals or do you work with the client on the front end and tell them that for a controversial event you must check your phones at the door?” Wilborn asked. “Those are some things that we still are tossing around here. I don’t know how to answer that quite frankly right now.
“But we had a plan in place. We didn’t plan on having to use it, but we had a plan. It’s an afterthought, but we probably should have required or should have requested that phones be left at that point because individuals did, in fact, compromise our location.”
Wilborn said that people remained in the arena for approximately two hours after which they were bused to an undisclosed location for the night while the facility remained a crime scene through the next day. They were bused back to the venue at 6 p.m. on Monday to retrieve their vehicles, and events restarted on Tuesday.
Wilborn said there was always a thought in the back of his mind that something extra could happen at this particular event.
“That’s obvious based on the fact we had a plan,” he said. “You just need to be prepared. Why would there be a need to have a plan for something if there was no worry? We operate here under the five P’s, Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. There was a plan in place and the plan worked.”
Wilborn commended the Garland Police Department as a “top unit” and said “they made it all happen and protected the welfare of everyone.”
He also praised his staff, which is in the midst of hosting 34 graduations with 200,000 total attendees in 30 days. Other events mixed in bring the total to 80 events over the next 60 days.
“I’ve got an excellent staff and they do it all,” Wilborn said. “They make it easy on me. They are the backbone of the Curtis Culwell Center. I want everyone to know that.”
As for other business going forward, Wilborn knows his plan for that quite well.
“No one has instructed me to do anything differently,” he said. “We have First Amendment rights and we will continue to function as we always have.”
Interviewed for this article: John Wilborn, (972) 487-4700