Las Vegas Review-Journal

Responders train for ‘unthinkabl­e’

Official: Goal is to find out where they can improve

- By Meghin Delaney Las Vegas Review-journal

An eerie cloud of green smoke erupted near a car early Wednesday in the parking lot of Shadow Ridge High School, drawing the school’s police officer outside as firefighte­rs arrived to extinguish it.

Then the crackle of gunshots rang out from inside the school.

The resulting frenzy of law enforcemen­t activity was all part of a massive training exercise aimed at making sure the Metropolit­an Police Department and other law enforcemen­t agencies are prepared for what might have been called “unthinkabl­e” in a simpler time.

TRAINING

would one day be able to see his own children outside prison walls.

Thejudgeha­ndeddownth­emaximum sentence.

On three separate days, a surveillan­ce camera recorded images of Banco molesting and assaulting “very small” children in the back of a bus before dropping them off at home afterschoo­l,authoritie­ssaidatthe time of his 2015 arrest.

Banco, who according to Transparen­t Nevada started working for the school district in 1995, was responsibl­e for 20 students on his route throughout the Las Vegas Valley. As he dropped them off to their parents, he lectured them about appropriat­e behavior with adults.

“His actions were so depraved, so horrible,” Martinez said. “He knew exactly whathewasd­oing.… These little girls will have to live with this the rest of their lives.”

A mother of one of the girls said her daughter still has nightmares.

“This is not something any family should have to go through or endure,” she told the judge. “But we are a strong family, and we will get through it.” A grandmothe­r of one of the victims, a 3-year-old girl at the time of the attacks, called her a hero for telling the family about what Banco had done.

“Thismanhas­destroyedm­ygranddaug­hter,” she said, turning toward thejudge.“howdoweget­pastthat? Idon’tknowwhate­lsetodo,buthug her. That’s all I have.”

 ?? Bizuayehu Tesfaye ?? Las Vegas Review-journal @bizutesfay­e A Las Vegas SWAT team member descends from a rescue helicopter during a mass shooting drill Wednesday. The drill was coordinate­d by the Metropolit­an Police Department and other agencies at Shadow Ridge High School.
Bizuayehu Tesfaye Las Vegas Review-journal @bizutesfay­e A Las Vegas SWAT team member descends from a rescue helicopter during a mass shooting drill Wednesday. The drill was coordinate­d by the Metropolit­an Police Department and other agencies at Shadow Ridge High School.
 ??  ?? Sheriff Joe Lombardo addresses the media Wednesday before the start of a mass shooting drill, coordinate­d by the Metropolit­an Police Department and other agencies, at Shadow Ridge High School.
Sheriff Joe Lombardo addresses the media Wednesday before the start of a mass shooting drill, coordinate­d by the Metropolit­an Police Department and other agencies, at Shadow Ridge High School.

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