Law enforcement agencies plan a debriefing from active shooter training on Aug. 7
Hundreds of emergency responders took part in a largescale active shooter training at the Toyota Amphitheater last week, and organizers plan to ponder the lessons learned.
All the agencies involved – host Yuba County Sheriff’s Office, California Office of Emergency Services, California Highway Patrol, Cal Fire, Beale Air Force Base, Marysville Police Department, Wheatland Police Department, Yuba City Police Department, Linda Fire, Olivehurst Fire, Wheatland Fire, Marysville Fire, Bi-county Ambulance, and REACH Air Medical Services – will be getting together Aug. 7 to debrief.
The training brought togeth
er law enforcement, fire personnel and first responders to conduct a mass-casualty-style active shooter scenario at the Wheatland concert venue.
Employees of Live Nation and Toyota Amphitheater played the role of concert-goers and wore realistic, made-up wounds.
The simulation started with flash bangs and a shooter, at the top of the grassy area of the amphitheater, firing off shots and heading toward the center of the amphitheater. Concert-goers, injured, attempted to escape the area and police entered and searched for the suspect. Some victims, who were able to walk (given their assigned wounds), were escorted to medical triage outside the venue. Others had to sit tight as police cleared areas before allowing in rescue medical task force personnel – specially trained to provide medical aid in serious incidents like these.
At one point, there was a hostage situation. Exercises they were trained on included timely threat assessment, threat neutralization, preservation of life, coordination of resources, command team structure and scene containment and
preservation.
While organizing such a largescale training with several agencies can be “sort of a logistical nightmare,” Yuba County Sheriff’s Sgt. Chad Watson said it came together well without any major hiccups.
“The departments came together very well, including the staff at the amphitheater – they were a huge help, and it came together nicely and we learned a lot,” Watson said Tuesday.
Watson, and Sgt. Brandt Lowe, were the main organizers of the training they now hope to host annually. The last large-scale law enforcement training held at the amphitheater was eight years ago and hazmat-related. Watson said the motivation for hosting such an event came from the 2017 Las Vegas shooting that left 58 dead, as well as the overall rise in mass shootings across the country.
“Lowe and I came together and wanted to test our capabilities and learn from it, and develop a better safety plan,” Watson said.
While such safety plans for law enforcement, fire, emergency services, command posts and locating a threat already exist, Watson said the debriefing in a few weeks will better outline what to do once a
threat has been dealt with.
One aspect focused on during the training, Watson said, was developing rescue task force teams with local fire departments outfitted in ballistic vests and helmets. These teams would enter a “warm zone” – cleared by law enforcement though there may still be a threat – and extract the injured.
“Throughout the years, really since Columbine … the thought process has changed to, we can’t sit and wait for everything to be completely cleared when you have people injured and shot and we need to render them aid,” Watson said.
The department has trained with the Linda Fire Department for these rescue task forces and now, Olivehurst and Wheatland fire departments are outfitted with the necessary equipment. Watson said following last week’s training, all the local fire departments have shown interest.
“This is definitely a step in the right direction for all the agencies to have that capability,” he said. “Everybody really came together well throughout the process and I think moving forward if we can do this training annually and keep building on that, it would be great for our area.”