OC Sheriff’s SWAT Team participates in Active Shooter Training

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office S.W.A.T. team completed active shooter training this past Saturday at Oconee Christian Academy off of Highway 188 near Seneca and the Bountyland Community.  The scenario that the S.W.A.T. team participated in concluded around 12:30pm Saturday afternoon. “I think it went really well,” according to Captain Ken Washington of the Special Operations Division of the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office.  “You are always training and always getting something out of it.  In this event here, the thing we got out of it is that we were able to go inside the school and look at the layout of the school.  The training aspect of it is if anything is to be able to go into an area where we have not been before and that was our first time going into the Christian Academy, getting and seeing a layout of the school.” Should an event take place at the school, which Captain Washington hopes never happens, the training the deputies received Saturday will give them some on-site intelligence already that the S.W.A.T. team did not have already.  Captain Washington points out the officers had a chance to use a lot of techniques that they have been trained on already.  Also, a robot was used as part of the training Saturday, which gave officers a chance to implement the use of robotics into the tactics of the S.W.A.T. team.  “We were really able to utilize technology.  Technology is great,” continues Captain Washington.  “We were able to utilize it to be able to get and to be able to see what is behind and around the corner or inside of a room before an officer actually makes entry into a room.  I think we were able to simulate making a “throw phone” without actually having an officer put him or herself in harm’s way.” Captain Washington says he was overall pleased with the training and the overall efforts of those officers who participated in Saturday’s training, especially using techniques that the officers have already been trained in.  The scenario Saturday involved two individuals who entered the school and involved not only injured officers, but injured students as well.  One of the perpetrators went to the office area in the administrative side of the building, while the other perpetrator barricaded himself in a classroom with some students.  The officers encountered the first perpetrator and that is when an officer was simulated being hit and was badly wounded.  The first perpetrator was killed during the scenario and the wounded officer was extracted from the building.  Several students simulated injuries in the hallway as well and were also removed from the building.  Negotiators and the S.W.A.T. team were able to obtain the release of all the students being held in the classroom and the second perpetrator gave up and was arrested.  Due to the simulated injuries, the S.W.A.T. team was able to make use of the new S.W.A.T. medics that past Saturday.  In fact, S.W.A.T. team members who had to go back out of the building and retrieve paramedics who were staged outside and bring them into the building to help with the simulated injured. “One of the main things we are trying to do now is that we trying to implement S.W.A.T. EMT’s,” says Captain Washington.  “We have an agreement with the hospital and EMS.  These are individuals that are part of EMS and we have two of our officers that are on the team who are trained in the medical side of things.  In this particular case, one of the officers got hurt and our two S.W.A.T. EMT’s started working on him.”  In the scenario, the second perpetrator simulated a call into 911 to say that he was one of the suspects and that he had some children in the room at the end of the hallway.  After the simulated situation with the first suspect and the downed officer, the S.W.A.T. team turned their attention to the second suspect and the children in the classroom.  As we mentioned, the scenario ended with the second suspect surrendering and being arrested.  So far this year, the Sheriff’s Office has conducted active shooter training using two floors of the old Oconee Memorial Hospital.  Plus, training has taken place at other schools as well.  Captain Washington says the Sheriff’s Office is actively seeking out other locations to do S.W.A.T. and active shooter training and encourages those who are interested to contact him at the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office.  Not only being familiar with the layout of buildings is of importance to officials, but active participation of those who work there is equally important, according to Captain Washington.  “We encourage at a lot of the schools that teachers and students be involved in the scenario’s such as the one this past weekend because on the other end of it, it shows them that this is how we work and there are some things that you can do to assist us.”