A stern dress rehearsal: Moscow agencies train for active shooter scenario

When the words came through the radio Thursday evening, local first responders sprang into action.

“We just got the call,” one of the police officers said.

That call signaled the beginning of a training drill for a nightmare scenario: an active shooter at Moscow High School.

Members of the Moscow Police Department, Moscow Volunteer Fire Department, Moscow EMS, Moscow School District, Gritman Medical Center and Latah County Sheriff’s Office participated in the training exercise to practice for a real-life emergency.

“Anytime you train, you get better,” said Moscow police Chief James Fry. “You learn where you need to work on some things.”

The police switched on their vehicles’ sirens, parked in front of the school and went into the building holding fake orange firearms. They scoured the school’s halls to identify the “shooter” and the “victims.”

“Our main role when we have any incident like this is we are to go in and try to find the threat and deal with the threat one way or the other, no matter what that is,” Fry said. “So our primary goal is to stop the threat.”

For this training exercise, Fry said his staff is focusing on improving its tactics and response time.

After the police went into the building, the EMTs and paramedics arrived on scene in fire engines and ambulances. They set up a triage outside the school to treat the “victims” with varying injuries.

Mike Neelon, Latah County Disaster Service coordinator, said each victim had different colored tags to represent their injuries. Red meant critical, yellow meant serious and green meant minor.

While the first responders set up an incident command post in a nearby parking lot, Neelon said Gritman Medical Center operated its own incident command team as well.

Neelon said Gritman employees used the training drill to practice for a scenario where the hospital is at overcapacity and needs to coordinate with air ambulance services and multiple other entities.

“It’s a dynamic situation,” Neelon said.

He also said a Whitcom dispatcher was also at the school Thursday to observe the first responders in action.

When the crews confirmed the threat had been stopped and the victims were accounted for, the Moscow Volunteer Fire Department went back to the fire station for a debriefing. Fry said his staff would hold its own debriefing to discuss how it did and what could be improved.

There is one factor the crews could not simulate during Thursday’s exercise. If this were a real emergency, Fry said he hopes parents of the students give the first responders space to do their job. As concerned as they may be, parents must avoid interfering as the police, EMTs and firefighters handle the situation.

Fry said he believes his staff did “pretty darn good” on Thursday.

“That’s why we do these,” he said. “It just makes us a little bit better and a little bit more used to what it’s like to respond to these.”