Law enforcement and emergency medical personnel from across the state recently gathered in Pensacola to take part in newly developed, high-intensity Active Shooter Hostile Events training.
The course was led by the Gordon Center for Simulation and Innovation in Medical Education at the University of Miami. The goal of this training is saving lives faster by providing immediate on-scene medical care.
The training took place July 14-16 at the Sanders Beach-Corrine Jones Resource Center.
A significant part of the course is rescue task force training for tactical medical response to an active shooter or hostile event.
"What that essentially means is that, in the past, law enforcement goes into a situation like that, they secure the scene, and then once a scene's secure, they bring fire responders: paramedics, EMS into the scene to start rendering aid," said Logan Lane, director of instructional programs at the Florida Public Safety Institute and adjunct instructor for the Gordon Center. "What we know is that in these events time is of the essence because that's how we're going to save the lives of those that are in there."
Lane pointed out that active shooter events are usually over in five minutes, then it's a matter of rendering aid. But victims with arterial bleeds, for example, typically bleed out in about three minutes.
"So, what this does is it brings your medical personnel into a situation where maybe it's not completely safe, but you put law enforcement security teams with those medical personnel so they can start rendering the advanced life-saving, doing the triages, getting people out, getting people to the hospital."
As part of the training, participants received instruction on tactical medical response, in teams of four, led by officers with weapons drawn.
"My law enforcement, whoever's on point in this scenario, is going to push up past my guy; he's gonna hold security," said one of the instructors. "The medics, this is your chance. You're gonna do whatever you need to do as quickly as you can."
After simulating the quick delivery of medical aid, the team is instructed on how to lift and carry an injured person, safely and securely, from the scene.
"My guy, who's holding cover, I'm gonna say, 'Hey, we're ready to lift, you can move back.' Remember, he's going to holster his weapon, set his legs up, grab his pants; and then on knee, ready, two, up," the instructor directed, as the procedure was carried out.
The active shooter training course also includes classroom instruction, incident command training and hands-on lifesaving skills stations, where the first responders use mannequins with simulated wounds to learn tourniquet applications, wound-packing and how to apply chest seal bandages for the treatment of entrance and exit wounds.
To simulate real-life trauma scenarios, volunteer actors from the community portrayed critically wounded victims during the training.
"First victim," shouts Robert Diferdinando, core instructor at the Gordon Center, as he gets started with the process of applying their moulage, which included stick-on gunshot wounds and painted-on simulated blood to make it look more realistic.
Diferdinando uses a blow dryer to heat up a stick-on wound, gets permission to cut a hole in the actor's clothes, and applies one to her leg and another to her arm. Then the red simulated blood is applied.
Those actors who are ready are called for by Vincent Torres, director of emergency preparedness and campus safety at UM. He is leading the series of exercises that will wrap up the training. Each scenario is slated to become increasingly complex. The first involves victims in just one room and a hallway.
"Alright, we're going hot, we're going hot," Torres calls out on the radio to get the exercise started. "Are we ready? I want to see some good acting today."
A simulated police radio recording of "Shots fired. Shots fired," can be heard. And with that, a team of first responders enters a side door and begins securing the scene and getting to work on the injured.
Faith Harris, whose mother is a Pensacola police sergeant, was one of the actors who really got into their part, groaning and yelling out, as if really in pain.
When it came time for the final simulated scenario, all the bells and whistles were included for the trainees. Alarms are blaring. Most of the large building is in play, with more victims scattered throughout, and there's an active shooter on the loose.
At the end of the exercise, Maj. Alexander Humulock, with the Pensacola Naval Air Station Police Department, declared it a success.
"It was very good; I was proud of them," he said, noting that the teams attended to the wounded and eventually got the shooter.
After participating in a "train the trainer" course earlier in the week, Humulock was one of the officers from participating agencies conducting the final day of training. Additionally, he has experience with the real-life active shooter event that occurred on base in December of 2019.
Moving forward, he believes the training will be helpful in improving interagency communications and operability, which is vitally important.
"If I don't know how my firemen are going to react or my emergency medical services are going to provide care, I can't effectively work my scene and save lives," Humulock stated. "And, even working with other agencies, learning their policies and procedures, we tailor ours to use the best practices. And once there's a common operating picture between the disciplines of fire, medical and law enforcement, ultimately, it's going to result in more lives saved and that's what the goal of ASHE is."
Thirty-five first responders from a dozen agencies, including the Pensacola Police Department, Escambia County Sheriff's Office, U.S. Navy Law Enforcement, and Santa Rosa County Fire Rescue, participated in the active shooter training, which is offered free to municipal governments and public safety organizations in Florida. Other agencies included Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Midway Fire Department, Florida Game Control Division, University of West Florida, Calhoun County Sheriff's Office,
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Liberty County Sheriff's Office.
The course, developed by the Gordon Center, in partnership with such organizations, was funded by a state grant in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
Many Tallahassee first responders had been through the training ahead of the mass shooting of nine people at Florida State University in April of this year.
"So, there was a lot of feedback from that, after the fact, about how beneficial the training was and how they knew what to do and how they were able to do that," said Lane. "If you look at the statistics, there were two people that died in that incident. There were several others that were injured. Had they not been medically tended to at that moment, we probably would have had more casualties."
Pensacola Police Department Interim Chief Kristin Brown, who came by to get a first-hand look at the Active Shooter Hostile Events training, acknowledged the value of it for first responders today.
"You can never get enough of this kind of training," said Brown. "Unfortunately, with what goes on in the world, we have to have this training so we can respond fast and save lives."
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