PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — It’s something law enforcement hopes never to have to deal with, but they train to be prepared. On Thursday, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies participated in a mass casualty exercise at Seminole Middle and High Schools.
"God forbid the real thing happens that we're as prepared as we can possibly be,” said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.
In the training scenario, a shooter parked at the school and walked across the street to a pretend insurance company where he worked and had been fired. He also had been a recent student at the school.
Inside the business, he started shooting. The mock gunman returned to the school’s parking lot, opening fire on students.
The man then made his way through the courtyard and into the school.
The training exercise was made to look and feel as realistic as possible. Within minutes, the initial group of first responders rushed to the scene.
“The teamwork that I saw when you’re taking people that are blended from other agencies and putting them together. I liked what I saw with that, and these are people that don’t work together,” said Sheriff Gualtieri. “We set up the scenario. We set up the framework for this. The people we had responding were given just certain information, and that’s it. Just like they would be if they’re on the street, they’re in a station; they’re waiting for a call. They got the call, and they responded.”
As part of the training simulation, school resource officers quickly confronted and took out the mock gunman. Law enforcement then stopped a second mock shooter who was in a classroom.
“Some of the things I saw that I liked were the single-deputy response. As soon as the deputies got here, they were going in, and there was absolutely no hesitation to confront the shooter and to go to the sound of the gunshots,” said Gualtieri.
Officers then checked room to room as multiple Pinellas County agencies responded and aided anyone who was pretend injured during the drill.
"We often say it's not if this will happen, but when, and we don't want it to happen in our schools, and it's important for our parents to know that we are prepared, we are making them as safe as we possibly can, and this district and this county is prepared to address these things when they occur,” said Kevin Hendrick, the Pinellas County Schools Superintendent.
The exercise was meant to test the response and readiness for any emergency like this, hoping to be as prepared as possible if that time ever comes.
"There's going to be a lot of lessons learned from this, but that's what we do, and that's why we do this, is to figure out what our vulnerabilities are, train on it, fill those holes so we can be better,” said Sheriff Gualtieri.
