As students ran toward the door to flee a shooting rampage, responding police officers wearing bulletproof vests and arms drawn storm the hallways and rooms to search for the “shooter” and stop him from doing further harm.
This was one of the scenes in yesterday's first responder active shooting training funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and conducted by three instructors from the Idaho and South Carolina-based Government Training Institute for 30 police officers or first responders.
The “immediate action teams-the active shooter” training, being held at the former Koresco Hotel in As Lito, is the first training of its kind for law enforcement officers in the CNMI.
Capt. Pete Leon Guerrero, traffic commander of the Department of Public Safety, said the training prepares law enforcers to respond quickly and effectively to shootings in schools, malls and other public places, similar to what has been happening in the states.
With the training, police officers who are the first to arrive on the scene need not wait for a tactical response team to arrive before deciding to stop the shooting and save lives.
“It's not a matter of if it's going to happen here, but when,” he said. “We need to provide this kind of training program because in an active shooting incident, if you are going to wait for us TRET guys.to show up, it's going to take us 45 minutes to one hour. If a guy is here shooting somebody [and first responders don't act], we'll start getting body bags.”
TRET stands for Tactical Response Enforcement Team.
Guerrero, who is also the commander of the CNMI Explosive Response Team, said the training is a collaboration among DPS, the Commonwealth Ports Authority police and the CNMI Office of Homeland Security.
“Nobody in the CNMI can provide this training at this point in time. So we brought in the professionals [from GTI]: the people who do case studies of incidents that have occurred, the dos and don'ts, what went right, what went wrong. These are the experts,” he said.
Patrick Tudela, training coordinator at the CNMI Office of Homeland Security, said the training was made possible by grant funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
He and Guerrero said a basic SWAT training will also be held next week for police officers, ports police officers and Corrections officers. SWAT stands for Special Weapons and Tactics.
“If they complete the basic SWAT training, they will be sent to the GTI facilities for additional training,” Tudela said.
Dennis O'Connor, director of training at the Government Training Institute, said first responders need to be able to move down hallways, intersections and rooms, as well as know how to shoot while they're moving and a grasp of the situation, among other things, to be able to respond effectively.
O'Connor is the lead instructor in the ongoing training, along with GTI instructors John Pompi and Travis Peterson. GTI is a private law enforcement training, police training, and military training facility and mobile team, according to its website.
GTI held a similar training in Guam last year.
'Inspired to become police officers'
Nineteen student trainees under the Workforce Investment Agency summer program participated in yesterday's police training. They acted as students who were at the scene of the “shooting” rampage.
Lyle Deleon Guerrero, 16, of Marianas High School, said he not only enjoyed being part of the training-seeing law enforcers in action-but also was inspired to become a police officer someday. “I want to help in the safety of civilians,” he said.
Jirelle Maralit, 15, who will be a student at Saipan Southern High School when classes start, said she, too, is now thinking about joining the police force after taking part in the training.
The WIA trainees, who are assigned to DPS, are students at MHS, SSHS, and Kagman High School.
The graduation for the immediate action training will be held on Friday, 2pm, at the Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe.
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