Authorities, Staff Hold Active Shooter Drill In Miami School
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Amid news of the deadly Ottawa, Canada shooting, South Florida school officials are taking it in their hands to prepare staff for an active shooter drill.
In a joint effort between Miami-Dade law enforcement and Miami Central Senior High School employees, the group is holding an active shooter exercise on Friday meant to prepare them for a real situation.
No students took part in the drill because of teacher work day.
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Drill attendees learned about school lock down and evacuation procedures which include timing and who is in charge of what task.
"It's imperative school police and municipalities are ahead of the game when it comes to this," said Delontay Dumas of Miami-Dade Schools Police.
The scenario was this two gunmen ran into school grounds after robbing a nearby store.
"The officers today were all about tactics. That's what today's scenario was all about...how they move together to eliminate threat," said Chief Ian Moffett of Miami-Dade Schools Police.
During training, actors posed as students and faculty and officers used paint ball bullets that sound and feel as close to the real deal as possible.
"It makes it more realistic to hear the booming sound instead of pow pow...makes officers realize this is for real as close as you can get to reality," said Dumas.
Both the shooters were brought down and no one was injured in the exercise.
The drill helped staff police and fire rescue hone in on communication skills to make sure they are all on the same page when responding to a worst case scenario.
"We learn to work together as a team. When you respond to a location, it's not going to be just one agency there. You had to work in conjunction with other agencies," said Dumas.
"The public expects us to be prepared and ready to respond before, during and after a situation and hopefully this never happens in Miami-Dade County," said Moffett.
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