Local police train to eliminate active shooter without hesitation
Jul. 12—Local law enforcement won't wait for the okay to go after a school shooter.
They'll charge in and "eliminate the threat," Boone County Special Response Team Commander Jason Reynolds said during active shooter training at Zionsville Middle School on Friday.
Area law enforcement officials carry helmets, protective vests, and their weapons systems in their take-home vehicles and are prepared to take out a threat on or off duty and wherever they are.
They won't wait for other officers or department heads to come help them. They'll go in alone or form a team with whomever shows up from any agency, he said.
"We want to help, and we're going in," Reynolds, a Boone County Sheriff's Lt., said. "It's important for parents to know that."
The SRT coordinates an annual active shooter training for all area police agencies, but laid off for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reynolds said the need for training again became urgent after a myriad of mass-casualty shootings throughout the nation in recent weeks.
The same rules apply for any active shooter anywhere in the county, not just for schools. But the multi-agency SRT and police from the Boone County Sheriff's Office; school resource officers; and Advance, Jamestown, Thorntown, Lebanon, Whitestown, and Zionsville police departments, trained together for three days last week at the middle school. Police from all shifts participated, Reynolds said.
It's important for agencies to train together, because "you could have anyone showing up," Reynolds said. There may be law enforcement parents in the school line waiting to drop off their children. A school resource officer may be first on the scene, and off-duty police or administrative personnel from any number of agencies may be traveling through the area. Anyone who is qualified and who hears the call will come, he said.
Training begins with classroom work and graduates to clearing classrooms and practice scenarios with trainers posing as bad guys and shooting Simunition at trainees. Simunition is non-lethal, but it hurts and leaves a welt and tell-tale paint smears. Reynolds had a welt on his ankle Friday.
Trainees fire back with Simunition. "I've only been shot six times in three days," Root said, adding that he'd delivered 12 shots to trainees.
Trainees and trainers talked about scenarios afterward, sharing what worked and what didn't. Root told two men their flashlights effectively blinded him and he was unable to aim at them as he planned an ambush in a classroom.
ZPD Officer Richard Lind, an active shooter trainer, complimented one multi-departmental team for establishing obvious leadership and effective communications with dispatchers amid the confusion.
Training officers and Reynolds' sons, Sawyer, 10, and Rex, 12, posed as victims and distracted trainees from their target. Sawyer and Rex said they know the officers and that the scenarios aren't real, but the guns are louder than they expected. "It gets you for a second," Rex said with a big grin.
The final scenario had an ad hoc law enforcement team called to the cafeteria, where multiple people laid injured and screaming for help in the dark. Police posing as victims rushed trainees as they pressed on down a hall.
A recording of people screaming in agony and fear played over the sound system, and a fog machine and strobe lights made the long hall even more disorienting and difficult to navigate.
"The scenarios are pretty realistic and very intense," Reynolds said. "They were tensed up. Yeah, it's not real, but no one wants to get shot. Those scenarios are the best thing we can give them, as close to the real thing as we can get.
"So, if the real thing does happen, they're ready to go," he said. "If there's an active shooter, and there are students in here, you don't wait for the jurisdictional heads to get here," Reynolds said. "Whoever gets here first goes in and eliminates the threat."
