Deputies prepare for ‘active shooters’

Like the legs of a centipede, lined up one after the other, Spokane County sheriff’s deputies charged into a Mead High School biology classroom Wednesday, armed with handguns made of red rubber.

It was only a drill, but the deputies treated it as if it were real, scanning the room with guns drawn, weaving in and out of desks looking for an armed suspect.

“Get on the ground, get on the ground, do it now!” one deputy shouted.

The drill, part of quarterly in-service training for the deputies, was focused on “active shooter” situations in high schools or businesses.

Incidents like the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado have redefined the way law enforcement responds to threats, forcing patrol officers to learn the same tactics used by specialized teams like SWAT.

Instead of assembling a negotiation team outside and assessing the situation from a distance, the first officers on the scene are now trained to go in, and eliminate the threat, said Sgt. Steve Barbieri, who works with the county’s SWAT team.

“Most active shooter situations are over within 30 minutes,” Barbieri said. “And the SWAT team is going to take a little bit longer than that to get to there.” It takes about 45 minutes for the SWAT team to assemble, he said.

Barbieri noted that the tactics taught Wednesday were the same used in last year’s incident at Lewis and Clark High School in which an armed student barricaded himself inside a classroom and was ultimately shot by officers when he pointed his gun at them.

“The public wants a no-shooting outcome,” Barbieri said.

“The reality in law enforcement is that age can’t be a deciding factor. The goal is to end the loss of life by containing the threat immediately.”

On Wednesday, deputies watched a presentation on how to handle an “active shooter” incident and practiced sweeping a room and clearing hallways of a building solo and in teams of up to four. Similar drills were planned at two Spokane Valley high schools before students return to classrooms in coming weeks.

“We’re always the first ones on the scene,” said Deputy B.A. Garrett. “So you’re thrown into the fire, so to speak.”

“It’s good to get this training, because if you go in there not knowing what to do, that’s how officers and citizens get killed,” Garrett said.