Medics, law enforcement train in active shooter response

    As a fog machine pumped smoke into the air, roughly a dozen actors huddled under seats, clutched at imaginary injuries and played dead in the aisles of the Holyoke JR/SR High School auditorium.
    Holyoke Police Chief Doug Bergstrom had just run into the room and, after warning those present to cover their ears, fired a blank toward the rear of the stage, simulating the detonation of a pipe bomb.
    A team of law enforcement officers then charged in, wielding dummy handguns painted bright orange. They swept the room, firing on one survivor who charged at the group. They found the “shooter” dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, lying in a seat with his rifle propped up next to him.
    Tactical medics followed and began treating the other survivors, some of whom were screaming and inconsolable. Each had cards describing their various injuries, ranging from gunshot wounds to acute emotional trauma.
    The June 23 training exercise was surreal and disorienting by design, but organizer Jim Felmlee said it was a toned-down version of what first responders would actually face in the aftermath of a mass shooting.
    “It would be total chaos,”  he said.
    Holyoke Police Sgt. Mark Werts, who also helped organize the three-day tactical medicine training and its capstone exercise, said the drills were still effective in giving participants an impression of the atmosphere following a shooting.
    “When or if they were ever able to go through that, these guys would be much more comfortable,” he said.
    The 13 trainees who attended June 21-23 hailed from agencies in Colorado and Nebraska and included both law enforcement officers and emergency medical technicians.
    Werts said one of the goals of the training was demystifying the activities of both groups to help them coordinate in the field.
    In addition to the Sunday drills, classes on Friday and Saturday covered topics like bleeding control, handcuffing, lifts and carries, crime scene preservation and tactical maneuvering.
    Training students treated survivors outside the auditorium after clearing the room. A second scenario took place in a classroom at the school, and students who acted in the first session had the chance to enter the room and treat survivors.
    The training was sponsored by Eastern Plains Fraternal Order of Police No. 61, Lions Club and Melissa Memorial Hospital.
    HPD officers, including Werts, volunteered to staff the training, along with Phillips County Sheriff’s Deputy Wyatt Bishop.