Volunteers make for more realistic active shooter training in Fulton

FULTON, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Callaway County Sheriff's Office began Thursday the first of two days of large-scale training exercises in Fulton to prepare for an active shooter.

This training Thursday was held at the Missouri School for the Deaf and was meant to prepare all agencies on responses to shootings and mass casualty situations. According to the sheriff's office's Facebook page, they are utilizing the school environment so officers can use real-life scenarios so they can be better prepared.

Holts Summit police and fire departments, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Callaway EMS, and North and Central Callaway fire departments were also in attendance.

Thirty minutes ahead of Thursday's first exercise at 8 a.m., volunteers were invited into the facility to be searched and receive roles. Two of the volunteers are given the opportunity to play shooters with the rest as victims. If chosen to be a victim, the volunteer is assigned descriptions of injuries, from gunshot wounds to "dazed." There were also a handful of "deceased" victims.

Victim characters are additionally dressed with fake blood and minor prosthetics to simulate wounds. During the exercise, volunteers are told to scream, cry, and attempt to approach officials for help to distract them.

Volunteer Trevor Padget played a dead victim. Paget is a lieutenant at the Missouri Department of Corrections on the emergency response team.

"I thought it'd be a good experience to come out here, see what it'd be like at a real scenario, take some of that and apply it to our work," Paget said.

This extensive process is meant to add depth to the scene. Compared to traditional training with no volunteers, this experience makes law enforcement and EMS respond to different types of injuries as well as mental states of victims.

"Cops can walk through a building like this, all day long," Maj. Curtis Hall with the Callaway County Sheriff's Office said. "But without that added stress or without the stimulus that is going on, then they're not going to take in nearly as well a stressful environment is as what we're putting on today.

The exercise begins as if the shooter already went through the building. Once officers enter, they sweep the area to neutralize the threat. Once the shooter is down, officers continue to follow the steps of an active shooter call, securing the building and ushering unharmed victims outside.

Following the state troopers, sheriff's deputies and police officers, EMS and firefighters are sent in to evaluate the injured victims, providing medical care and carrying them outside.

After the simulation is over, officials and victims are debriefed on their experience, new roles are given out, and new supervisors take over for round two of the exercise.

All active threat response exercises featured realistic victims. However, this is the first year multiple departments took part in an "all-out scenario."

"We've been doing training this summer, usually eight to nine deputies at a time to put them through this new active shooter protocol that we put out," Hall said. "This is incorporating fire, EMS, other agencies to kind of come together and deal with a situation."

The Callaway County Sheriff's Office hopes to host this simulation every year and is looking for role players for the training. If anyone is interested they are asked to email Hall at chall@callawayso.org.

The training starts again at 8 a.m. Friday.

Trainings are also being held Aug. 6 and 7 at 6 p.m.