No Aircraft
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 4.0
Distraction; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Security
General None Reported / Taken
Airport; Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors
There was a possible active shooter outside of the facility. I was sitting in the break room with a coworker and we heard gunshots ring out. One controller's wife had just pulled into the gate and she ran to the front door to avoid the gun fire. We ran up to the tower cab and it appeared a man was outside his mobile home next door to the tower; shooting towards the airport and in the vicinity of the Tower. We all ducked and laid down on the ground. I called the police and gave them directions to get to the mobile home/tower. They arrived approximately 10 to 15 minutes later. While we were waiting we witnessed the shooter fired multiple shots into the vicinity of airport and Tower/parking lot area. As the event was unfolding I called my Air Traffic Manager (ATM). He did not answer. Then I called my Supervisor; he answered. I asked him what we should do; but then my manager called back so I hung up and answered the call from my Air Traffic Manager. I told him what was going on and I asked him what we should do. My shift was ending in an hour. The field was IFR. There was no traffic. I asked my manager if the other two controllers don't feel safe at the facility if we could go ATC ZERO and evacuate. My manager advised me that he was out of town [with] the District Manager (DM). He said he would talk to the DM and call me back. He never called back. We waited for about 1.5 hours for guidance from my ATM and never heard anything back. In the meantime; I relieved a controller and took Controller in Charge and Ground Control. I continued to work the position while fielding many phone calls from police about the location; description of shooter; description of the gun; and the entire event as a whole. The police came and apprehended the suspect. By [late afternoon] things had died down but we still had an uneasy feeling and I believe that the controllers would have preferred to evacuate and go ATC ZERO for the last 2 hours but we never heard anything back from the ATM. The tower never evacuated and was closed at the normal time. I left when my shift ended.This tower is an extremely dangerous place to work. There is an unbelievable amount of crime that happens right outside the gates. In my years at this facility I have had to call the police countless times. I've given countless statements and descriptions of suspects who trespassed on to the airport; cars that crashed through fences; people diving through dumpsters on the facility; people moving couches onto taxiways and closed runways taking selfies with closed runway signs. Cars have driven on runways; transients running across runways. Before this shooting; about a month ago I witnessed the shooter and some other people waterboarding a child in their parking lot as punishment. There was a meth lab across the street that the police informed us they were looking at. A month ago there was a man from a halfway house a block away standing in the street outside the gate with a shovel threatening people. There is a spot right outside the gate where people appear to routinely wait for drug pickups or at the very least smoke marijuana. A man across the street was killed when his car fell on him in his garage. I watched the coroner come to the house and remove the body. We have witnessed it all. This shooting is the craziest thing I have seen and the lives of controllers are threatened every time we come to work here. This is just a fraction of things that I have witnessed; not including countless unauthorized drones; and laser illumination events. Since I've been here the only security measures that have been implemented are 3 security cameras that don't record; and they don't really do any good because they show places that you can already see from the tower window. The airport has put up a higher fence in the creek that runs behind the tower to prevent the neighborhood residents from climbing or dumping trash. That is pretty much it. This tower is not safe; nor will it be until the tower is moved to the other side of the airport. I highly recommend that this facility's hours be changed to close at 8PM and the staffing be reduced because nobody that works for the FAA should be forced to work here. In the last [few] years the FAA has attempted to staff this facility to 13 people but nobody stays here. Since NCEPT restrictions were implemented; I've seen multiple controllers just quit; hardship transfer; or apply for Supervisor jobs because they haven't been able to leave the facility. That leaves the controllers that want to voluntarily transfer unable to move on and leave. So many controllers here would like to leave but can't. We have never been fully staffed as long as NCEPT has existed. I highly suggest that this be a facility where controllers come on a contract similar to GUAM; which would guarantee they're release after 2 years. I have not even begun to discuss the countless Mandatory Occurrence Reports and accidents this facility faces. It's ridiculous and a shame that the FAA subjects its employees to this place. Now we are being shot at. This needs to change now!!
Tower Controller reported possible active shooter outside near the Tower and previous criminal activities taking place in the vicinity of the Tower.