VALDOSTA — Looking at Frank Lathron today, it is impossible to tell the 84-year-old was shot two times in the back at a bar 22 years ago.

The Vietnam and Korean War veteran retired at Moody Air Force Base after 33 years of service and enjoyed hanging out with his wife and friends at The Office Bar and Grille in Valdosta.

Before Loren Allen Denzer Jr. snapped and shot up the bar, it was like any other night at the popular drinking establishment, Lathron said.

“I didn’t know at the time, but the owner, Bill Moses, great guy, had to throw Denzer out the night before for harassing some of the women,” Lathron said. “So when he came back again that Friday, Moses went and threw him out again.

“Moses always made sure there was no funny business happening in the bar,” he said. “If people were going to fight, he would throw them out in the parking lot. He made sure it was a good clean bar.”

That evening, after he threw Denzer out for the second night in a row, Moses saw him heading back to the bar with a .357 Magnum and a 10mm semi-automatic pistol. Moses went to stop Denzer but was shot several times.

According to eyewitness testimony at the time, once Moses was on the ground, Denzer turned him over and asked, “What do you think about this?” and fired two more shots into the proprietor’s body.

Moses died at the scene.

The lone gunman continued his rampage, entering The Office Grille and firing several more shots into a crowd of patrons. Lathron was yelling for people to get out or to “hit the deck.” His time in the service helped him stay calm and help people. 

When the shooting started, a woman at the bar froze and Lathron grabbed her to pull her to the ground, but Denzer saw them and shot Lathron twice in the back. 

One of the bullets went through Lathron and into the woman, hitting her in the lung.

“It hurt like nothing I’ve ever felt before,” he said. “The burning was intense. I couldn’t do anything after that. The bar was chaos with people screaming and running around. It was a packed night that night.”

Denzer continued firing into the crowd, striking two more people. Five people were shot, but only Moses lost his life that night.

Soon after the shooting started, law enforcement arrived. Denzer fired a couple of shots at law enforcement before throwing away his weapons and surrendering.

Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk, who was there that night, said they told him they would kill him if he didn’t surrender. Denzer was taken into custody and is currently in prison.

In the decades since the shooting at The Office Bar & Grille, similar scenes have played out again and again across the nation from barrooms to other public places such as Pulse Night Club in Orlando, Florida, a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and a more recent shooting at a county music concert in Las Vegas. 

However, across the SunLight Project coverage area, which includes Valdosta, Moultrie, Tifton, Thomasville, Milledgeville and Dalton, Ga., and Live Oak, Fla., no other location reported having a large public incident with multiple injuries such as the night at The Office Grille. Also, for every big gathering of people, area law-enforcement agencies said they make a concerted and collaborative effort to keep the public safe.

Police presence deters violence 

Officials at police departments and sheriff’s offices all said a visible law enforcement presence at public events is the most important deterrent to violence. 

Paulk said the sheriff’s office lets people know deputies will enforce the law during public gatherings. In 2016, two opposing groups of people gathered at the historical Lowndes County Courthouse, one side protesting President Donald Trump, the other side supporting him.

The sheriff’s office and the Valdosta Police Department have a large and visible presence at such public events. 

“At events like that you try to make a presence in uniform, so people know you’re there, but if you think there is a potential for problems, you have a lot of people in plain clothes working the crowd, listening to people and trying to find the people trying to incite something,” Paulk said. “If you get someone who is causing problems, you remove them immediately.”

Since the shooting at The Office Grille, he said how law enforcement handles public gatherings and dangerous situations has changed. Paulk said there are more resources available for agencies and more training for officials.

Resources and training make it a lot safer for law enforcement and easier for crowd control, he said, but the tried-and-true method of just being present remains the most effective.

Capt. Stryde Jones has personally walked through crowds during events such as football games and concerts. He said deputies make sure people don’t cross the line.

“Every time that I can recall, if it looks like there is going to be a situation, once they realize you’re standing beside them, that situation is defused,” Jones said. “We want people to have fun and have their free speech, but at the same time, we won’t let them cross that line.”

Generally, public gatherings in Valdosta and Lowndes County go off without a hitch, and Paulk attributes that to the community. 

“We have a pretty good population here,” he said. “But they also know that we are serious about law enforcement. We’re going to look out for the general population.”

Law-enforcement officers share a similar sentiment across the SunLight Project coverage area. 

“We like to be seen,” said Capt. Steven Jones with the Thomas County Sheriff’s Office.

He compared officers’ presence at ball games and other public events to their presence in a school zone with swirling blue lights.

“People slow down,” Jones said. “It’s the same thing.”

Jones said sheriff’s deputies “are not leaning against the fence watching the game,” nor are they lax at other public places and events.

“We are in the crowd, and people know we’re there. They can see us. We want to be seen,” he said.

Safety at public buildings 

Security extends to public buildings such as the Thomas County Judicial Center and the courthouse across the street, where Deputy Melven Johnson and Sgt. Scotty Richards are in charge of security.

When someone enters the judicial center, they walk through a metal detector, where a weapon or cell phone registers an alarm. The weapon or cell phone shows up in yellow on a computer screen. Locked metal boxes are provided for storing a weapon, while someone is in the building, or it will be taken to the owner’s vehicle.

“We check for weapons or anything that can be used as a weapon,” Johnson said.

Security cameras are also used for keeping the public buildings safe. A room at the judicial center is equipped with a number of monitors that reveal activity inside and outside the two buildings — from the sole public entrances at each building to courtrooms to holding cells near courtrooms on the second floor.

Officers sometimes respond to tax offices in the historic courthouse when a customer becomes agitated and unruly. Incidents have also taken place in probate court proceedings at the judicial center.

Johnson said some parties in child support and divorce cases have been escorted from the judicial center to their vehicles when arguments break out.

Randa Wharton, Thomas County clerk of court, whose office is at the judicial center, said she feels safe in the building.

“We’ve got security here. We hope for the best,” Wharton said.

The clerk’s office previously was in the historic courthouse. Wharton said she thinks security is better at the judicial center.

Occasionally, she said, a customer will become upset and raise his or her voice.

“The officers come right down and check on it,” Wharton said.

The office of Twink Monahan, longtime Thomas County Commission clerk, is on the second floor of the historic courthouse.

Monahan said the historic courthouse now has only one public entrance. Employees, who have a private entrance, must have an electronic key to get into the building.

When talking about safety of government buildings, the Suwannee County, Fla., Courthouse is the first thing that comes to Sheriff Sam St. John’s mind.

He said every employee has an access card to enter the courthouse and everyone else must come through the front door.

People must also go through a metal detector before entering, and several deputies are stationed at the courthouse during the week.

Emergency plans crucial 

Live Oak Police Chief Buddy Williams said recent events have made law enforcement reconsider emergency plans and see what changes need to be made.

He said safety measures to consider are buzzer entries, thicker glass and installing panic buttons.

“There is never a perfect plan,” Williams said. “We have to be as best prepared as we can.”

During community events and parades, the sheriff’s office and police department work together to ensure the safety of the community.

“We have an operational plan for every event and parade,” Williams said.

There has never been a major incident at the events, he said.

The Downtown Development Authority in Dalton coordinates everything that happens downtown, Dalton Police Department Lt. Jamie Johnson said.

“People file with them first, and once they show they have the insurance and everything required, the DDDA sends it over to the police department, to public works, to the fire department, to parks and rec to see if anybody has any questions,” Johnson said. 

What they look at is the availability of personnel to work the event, he said. If there are closed intersections, they have to have people to work them. 

He said the second thing they review is the route. 

“We want to make sure they are using a route that is safe for participants, spectators and officers and also has the least impact on traffic,” Johnson said. “We have a set route for downtown. One of the reasons we have that route is so that people know if we are having a parade, this is where it is going to be.”

The DDDA also handles applications for downtown festivals and concerts. The application process is similar, with the DDDA forwarding the application process to other city departments for feedback.

“We participate in about 72 events a year — providing security, closing roads, having a presence. I can’t recall any major issues.”

Most are annual events, family oriented or helping a charitable organization or some other good cause, he said. 

But officials emphasize “see something, say something” at any public event. If anyone sees something they think is out of place or suspicious, they should feel free to approach an officer and point it out to him or her.

“If it turns out to be nothing, the worst that has happened is that an officer has spent five minutes investigating it,” said Bruce Frazier, Dalton Police Department spokesman. “That was five minutes the officer was working anyway”

Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress said he can’t guarantee a shooting such as the one at Pulse Night Club in Orlando, Florida will never happen here. 

“We do the best we can,” Childress said. “At Pulse, that was a terrible event, but how can you predict something like that? The only thing we can do is have procedures in place and, hopefully, have an officer there, so if an event like that were to happen, at least we would have an officer there to handle it.”

Much like police and sheriff’s offices across the SunLight Project’s coverage area, which includes Valdosta, Moultrie, Tifton, Thomasville, Milledgeville and Dalton, Ga., and Live Oak, Fla., the Valdosta Police Department has plans and procedures in place for every foreseeable situation. 

One useful tool the department uses is off-duty officers, who provide off-duty security for businesses such as night clubs, gas stations and other popular haunts. 

VPD Lt. Adam Bembry said businesses such as Flash Foods can request security from an off-duty officer during hours of the night that are more subject to problems.

He said officers are prohibited from going to the businesses looking to do security work. There are strict procedures for off-duty officers.

Childress said every off-duty officer must use a VPD vehicle when they are doing security. 

“It’s a deterrent, but everything is regulated,” he said. “We make sure they know that when they are at these off-duty deployments there are guidelines they have to follow.”

For government buildings, VPD posts a guard at every meeting and will post more depending on the agenda. Childress said he attends department head meetings with other city officials to discuss whether a topic is controversial enough to warrant additional protection.

Mayor John Gayle said there has never been a problem at a meeting but people do sometimes get riled up. He said the officer on duty at every meeting keeps an eye on people.

“He’s there looking for people who look suspicious, and he’s there in case I signal to him that I need someone ushered out,” Gayle said. “Now, we have not chosen to have 24-hour security in this building, which is something I have on my radar. With things happening nowadays, we are probably not as secure as we ought to be.”

A lot of cities and government buildings have metal detectors. Valdosta doesn’t have detectors not because the city doesn’t want them, but because of state legislation that makes installing the equipment too expensive, Gayle said.

He said the state passed a law that says if the city provides security it has to provide it 24/7 year-round. That would require the city paying for a guard all day even when the building is empty.

“That makes it difficult on us, because we could have people scanned as they came into the meetings,” Gayle said. “Now, we haven’t had any problems, but I don’t want to wait for something to happen.”

The mayor said he has proposed having a facility study done on city offices, which will include security. 

Outside of city hall, the city relies on the police department to protect other public spaces. If people want to hold a protest or rally, they have to fill out a permit and submit it to the police for review. 

This is typical for most cities and requires departments to be in many places at once.

Between the Baldwin County Courthouse, recreational and high school sporting events, and various banks and private entities, Baldwin County police have no shortage of places to protect.

In their efforts to keep the people of Milledgeville and Baldwin County safe in public places, deputies from the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office protect a multitude of local institutions.

“We work uniform security at Mid-South Credit Union, some of the local churches in town, and different functions like that,” said BCSO Major Scott Deason, who oversees the department’s field operations division. “The board of education will soon have four uniformed deputies that work their properties, and they reimburse the county for those deputies because they’re basically up there all day long. On our side jobs, whether it’s churches, banks or the probation office, they’ll hire deputies off-duty and contract directly with them.”

Aside from the department’s court services division, which posts anywhere from two to 10 deputies at the county courthouse at any given time, roughly 12 deputies work side jobs, providing security for local private entities.

Although Deason said no deputies have had to spring into action while securing local events in recent years, the courthouse is arguably the most secure building in the city with metal detectors and cameras aiding uniformed deputies.

At City Hall and large events inside the city limits, the Milledgeville Police Department provides officers for security and to keep the peace, usually on Milledgeville’s main downtown square.

At the former Central State Hospital campus, which technically sits inside the city limits but spans more than 2,000 acres, the city contracts security services to the private firm Dynamic Security. Dynamic posts at least one officer on the CSH campus at any given time, but the company did not respond to requests for comment on their training and hiring protocols.

Increasingly in the past few years, deputies and officers have turned to security cameras in businesses and homes for evidence in crimes that happen on the premises, and this trend is likely to continue as the price of in-building surveillance equipment continues to decrease.

One Milledgevile resident said she would feel safe in any public place, thanks to the county’s uniformed officers.

“Obviously you can’t predict what’s going to happen where, but I think we have enough police at our public events to make sure that everyone is safe,” Sarah Holiman said. “Even though we always hear about shootings and different things in the news, I’ve never felt like security at football games or DeepRoots was lacking.”

While violent events in more public settings such as schools, churches and night clubs are more often seen on the news, hospitals are not immune.

Between 2000 and 2011 there were some 154 shootings at U.S. hospitals across 40 states, according to a study conducted by Johns Hopkins’ medical personnel.

Of those, 59 percent took place inside a hospital building, and 63 were outside on hospital grounds.

In those shootings, 235 victims were either injured or killed.

At Colquitt Regional Medical Center, the hospital has spent $1 million on a video system with 400 cameras to monitor both the interior and exterior of the facility, said Jim Matney, the hospital’s chief executive officer.

To lessen the possibility of an incident, as well as protect employees, patients and visitors, the security system includes security personnel, limited access and a high-tech video surveillance system being augmented with facial-recognition software.

To ensure patient privacy, Matney said no cameras are placed where they can intrude into patient areas.

“I’ve got a security force that not only roams the hospital, they monitor the security cameras,” Matney said. “It’s not to watch everybody; we’re keeping the public safe and also keeping our staff safe.”

The camera system covers corridors and hallways and business areas. Cameras are equipped with sensors that start recording when someone in their vision moves. The recordings can be used by police in their investigations.

So a security officer monitoring the cameras would be alerted if, say, someone were in the pharmacy after hours when no one should be in that area.

In the hospital nursery, newborns are protected from abduction by a Kuddle security system, Matney said. A monitor attached to the babies will sound an alarm and lock doors if someone takes them beyond a certain point.

In the event of an incident inside the facility, all doors — outside and interior — can be locked.

So, if someone is acting violently, or if police give the hospital a description of a suspect who might be inside, the suspect can be isolated the moment the doors are locked.

Along with facial-recognition software being introduced, Colquitt Regional will install panic buttons outside in the parking lot that can alert security in the event of a robbery or other emergencies.

Among the busiest buildings in Dalton are the Colquitt County Courthouse and Courthouse Annex buildings that sit in the center of downtown.

From getting a marriage license at the courthouse to paying property taxes and purchasing tags at the Colquitt County Tax Commissioner’s Office in the annex across the street, downtown is a beehive of activity.

There could be 10 or more officers in uniform and in plain clothes on duty during court, but officers’ presence is considerable even when court is not in session.

Georgia law requires the sheriff either be at the county courthouse or a deputy be designated to be there at all times the building is open, Colquitt County Sheriff Rod Howell said.

A deputy is stationed at the tax commission office and one is stationed full-time in Colquitt County Magistrate Court.

“In my experience there’s no time you ride by the annex building when a sheriff’s car is not sitting there,” Howell said.

Colquitt County Human Resources Director John Peters said because the buildings house courtrooms, the public cannot bring guns inside.

At least one armed deputy is at all Colquitt County Commission meetings, and Moultrie police are at all Moultrie City Council meetings.

No discussion of safety in Moultrie and Colquitt County is complete without mentioning Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition.

With attendance of around 100,000 people during a three-day period, the annual farm show is the only event that brings in more visitors than a Packers football game.

Two security meetings are held each year to prepare for the event.

Security for Expo is intense and involves year-round planning, Colquitt County Sheriff Rod Howell said, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia State Patrol, sheriff’s office and Moultrie police.

Deputies man the gates, Moultrie police escort vendors carrying money and uniformed officers from both agencies and inconspicuous law-enforcement officers roam the grounds, Howell said.

Some 12 to 15 deputies in uniform are on the grounds each day, and some off-duty officers are hired.

“People don’t realize all the resources that are here” for the Expo, he said.

Less security is needed for smaller events such as Colquitt County High home football games. Including deputies in uniform and plain clothes officers, the sheriff’s office has as many as 15 people inside, while Moultrie police work the outside and grounds.

The two agencies also provide security for parades and other events in town such as the annual Spring Fling, and the sheriff’s office helps at festivals in smaller cities such as May Day in Doerun.

For Tifton, city hall only has a metal detector at the entrance to the meeting room where the city council meetings are held. However, there are cameras monitoring both inside and outside the building.

While City Hall is completely open to the public, other city buildings are not.

Cameras monitor the inside and outside of the police department and fire departments. Both the police department and the main fire station have lobbies for visitors, but the rest of the building is secured and can only be accessed with a pass key.

Fulwood Park is where many of the local festivals and events take place.

In addition to recently installed cameras which monitor the park 24/7, events are usually patrolled by police officers in uniform. Football games, parades and large public events such as the Hometown Holidays parade and celebration are also monitored by police.

The county courthouse and the Charles Kent Administration Building, where the Tift County Board of Commissioners meet and the county government is housed, have metal detectors at the entrances, manned by a deputy from the Tift County Sheriff’s Office.

The Tift County Jail has a public lobby, but is secured against public access as well.

Any court proceedings in either the city or the county have a law enforcement presence and anyone entering the courtroom passes through a metal detector.

The SunLight Project team of journalists who contributed to this report includes Alan Mauldin, Will Woolever, Charles Oliver, Jessie R. Box, Patti Dozier, Eve Guevara and Thomas Lynn. To contact the SunLight team, email sunlightproject@gaflnews.com.

Thomas Lynn is a government and education reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be reached at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256