Mass casualty training involving several local agencies prepares first responders for the worst

Published 5:30 pm Wednesday, June 21, 2023

REDMOND — The last thing a parent would ever want to hear is the phrase “shots fired” and the name of their children’s school, but first responders from across the tri-county area were preparing for that scenario on Wednesday at Elton Gregory Middle School in Redmond.

The scenario even included shots being fired inside the school using nonlethal ammunition.

The mass casualty drill was six months in the making and involved several agencies throughout Central Oregon, including school districts, fire and ambulance services, and law enforcement agencies. They gathered at the Redmond middle school to simulate an active shooter situation. Students, school staff and members of the public were also involved.

Redmond Police Lt. Jesse Petersen said the drill was designed to prepare first responders for a worst case scenario: a mass casualty situation.

“Your mock scenario today is a school shooting where you will have one threat that ends up barricading themselves in the school, and then they have to work through that problem,” Petersen said minutes prior to the training simulation. “And the second problem is another shooter who comes in to try and hurt officers, and they have to stop that person from hurting them.”

With a mock perimeter set up around the school, both to give the scenario more authenticity and for safety reasons, participants spent the entire day setting up for the drill and training.

”Law enforcement have to come in,” Petersen said. “They have to stop that threat. Then from there, they have to task and prioritize saving lives. So the idea is to get people who are injured, figure out how hurt they are, and then get them out to transportation.”

A mock 911 dispatch center was set up in a classroom, where dispatchers sat at their desks waiting to field calls and take notes as the scenario unfolded in real time. The simulation began with someone calling in a suspicious person and two units were dispatched.

Soon, a man with a gun walked through the front door of the school, and the pop, pop, pop of shots echoed in the building. Incoherent screams and calls for help followed. As in real life, the dispatch jolted to life with the sound of walkie-talkies and the jargon of police communications.

“Active shooter at Elton Gregory Middle School,” a dispatcher said over her radio. “Armed male, shots fired.”

Within minutes, law enforcement officers in the drill were rushing through the doors of the school with their weapons drawn ready to simulate neutralizing the shooter, and saving lives. A dispatcher stayed on the phone with another mock shooter who was barricaded in the school as part of the simulation.

Medical personnel who participated in the drill had to locate victims and assess the injuries of the wounded all while the chaos of the drill continued. The screaming and noise was part of the training to prepare first responders for a real situation, Petersen said. “Part of that is overwhelming the officer’s senses and first responders by being loud. If you have a major incident like this, people are going to be scared, people are going to be loud, they are going to ask for assistance. They might grab on to an officer,” Petersen said.

The last training of this kind took place in Redmond at Obsidian Middle School in 2018, Petersen said. Before that, a training took place at Ridgeview High School in 2012.