It was an exercise designed to provide another level of training in response to a shooter in a local school. State and local law enforcement officers arrived at Fayette County High School in Fayetteville on Dec. 21 to participate in the simulation of a high risk search for an active shooter.
The Dec. 21 joint-training exercise was conducted by Peachtree City Police Dept., Fayetteville Police Dept. and the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office along with agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and Georgia State Patrol (GSP). The idea behind the training, said Peachtree City Police Lt. Mark Brown, was to simulate several scenarios involving a high risk search of a school where a shooter is still on-site.
Officers had the high school to themselves for the training since students were out of Christmas break.
The exercise, said Brown, was one that involved a “Post Active Shooter” scenario. So the scenario unfolded as if it was a regular Tuesday at Fayette County High School.
Then, unexpectedly, shots were fired and the students in their respective classrooms were quickly put in lockdown.
Such a scenario as the one Brown described involves a law enforcement response after shots have been fired and someone is injured and where a preliminary search is unable to locate the shooter. That is when the Special Response Team (SRT) is brought in to methodically search the area and locate the perpetrator. A part of the Dec. 21 training also included the search for an improvised explosive device, Brown added.
“We always assume the worst in this kind of exercise to make sure the site is secured,” Brown said.
And that is exactly what the SRT members and their counterparts from the GBI and GSP did. Splitting into smaller units they slowly and methodically moved down the various hallways, clearing the classrooms one by one and subduing intruders attempting to evade the officers.
The training exercise began at 2 p.m. and ran through most of the afternoon.
