Copper Mountain College was the site of a joint active-shooter training drill early Wednesday morning. College employees and faculty participated in the drill, in which a Sheriff’s deputy—portraying the lone shooter—simulated shooting and wounding 10 staff members as he moved from the student services center to the Greenleaf library, and on to other parts of the college campus, before he was captured and detained by law enforcement.
More than 70 officers from the Sheriff’s Department, County Fire, County Probation, the California Highway Patrol, Morongo Basin Ambulance, the National Park Service, and the State Parole office convened at the college in the pre-dawn hours for the training exercise, which began about 7 a.m.
A combination of volunteers, mannequins, and training aids were used to simulate a multi-casualty, active shooter incident. Law enforcement, fire, and EMS personnel worked together to identify and capture the suspect, protect and evacuate the innocents, while simultaneously extracting and treating the wounded.
The simulated victims, who had fake wounds and were covered with stage blood, were placed into ambulances and driven to the child care center nearby, to the alarm of the center’s employees and parents, who had not been notified of the exercise.
Participants said the active shooter drill allowed public safety officers to work together and train for a large-scale, mass casualty incident, and college personnel were familiarized with the “Run, Hide, Fight” response to an active shooting incident.
Courtesy San Bernardino County Fire Department
Courtesy San Bernardino County Fire Department
Courtesy San Bernardino County Fire Department
Courtesy San Bernardino County Fire Department
