Manhattan and Hermosa Beach police train in shooter response
The sound of gunshots and screaming coming from Mira Costa High School during the past two weekends were part of a police and fire training exercise to practice responding to critical incidents on campus.
Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach police and Manhattan Beach fire held “active shooter” training at the school to practice and get comfortable with the campus and SWAT techniques and terminology. An active shooter is “an armed person who has used deadly physical force on other persons and continues to do so while having unrestricted access to additional victims,” said Sergeant Ron Walker.
A volunteer runs past a police officer during the active shooter response training at Mira Costa High School on Friday. PHOTO BY ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN
Every officer in each department participated in the training – more than 70 members total, according to Sergeant Christian Eichenlaub. Volunteers, police explorers and a dispatcher also gathered on campus to make the exercise realistic by role-playing as victims and delivering dispatches.
“It’s as realistic as it can possibly be,” said Lieutenant Andrew Harrod. “I think the officers are getting a great deal of benefit out of that type of training.”
Every hour, a handful of officers and firemen sat through a lecture presented by Sergeant Walker, where he discussed the motives of domestic terrorists, or active shooters. “Their thought process is of revenge and rage,” he said, noting that attacks usually occur at a school or in a location where the attacker has personal relationships. The attack could be directed toward “a bully, a counselor or a teacher – somebody they didn’t get along with,” he said.
Detective Michael Rosenberger watches the police departments simulate scenarios to train in active shooter response. PHOTO BY ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN
The concept of active shooter response changed after the Columbine shooting in April 1999, Walker said. Back then, a SWAT team would respond to a shooter incident; however, he explained that it can take anywhere from 20 minutes to more than an hour for a SWAT team to show up. When a gunman is present, there isn’t the luxury of that kind of time. “The whole goal is to reduce loss of life,” Walker said. “We need to train our people to be able to deal with this immediately.”