Augusta’s law enforcement agencies, including police, the fire department and the FBI, came together Thursday morning to run through a full-scale active shooter simulation at an abandoned school.
The drill ran from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m., including debriefings, and included 15 to 20 different agencies, as well as volunteer actors who played the victims. It took place at Southside Elementary School, which closed in 2018 and was meant to simulate Augusta University’s Summerville Campus.
The simulation gave law enforcement personnel practice at working seamlessly with people outside their agency when every second matters, said the FBI’s Brian Ozden.
“It’s as real as this training can get,” he said. “You don’t want to be meeting your colleagues and other departments the day of.”
The training event comes less than a week after two people were killed and four were injured in a gunfight on Sand Bar Ferry Road that involved two rival motorcycle clubs. It put Augusta on the list of more than 200 U.S. mass shootings so far in 2023.
Training together gives agencies the chance to work out how to save lives, said Dr. Alejandro Baez, director of the MCG Center of Operational Medicine and physician leader of the medical oversight program of the Atlanta field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“The reality is there. It’s palpable,” Baez said. “Gun violence is a major public health problem in the U.S.”
One of the volunteer actors, Helen Burton, said she was playing a 42-year-old male victim with an injured leg.
“I like to be prepared,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in my surroundings. I want to make sure that everybody in my community is prepared.”
The simulation extended to AU Health, which held its own training simulation on how to handle an influx of patients with Level 1 trauma.
Deborah Anderson, another volunteer actor, said she worries about mass shootings since she has one grandchild in school and one in daycare.
“I pray to God it never happens, but it is happening every day,” she said. “I want to be able to help the people who are responding in any way I can to let them know what to do.”
The drill is part of Augusta’s effort to adopt the National Fire Protection Association 3000 standard, a set of protocols for an active shooter or hostile event. The #strongaugusta campaign has helped Augusta become the first city in Georgia and one of the first cities in the nation to adopt it.
The campaign first started in early 2020 after John Ryan, critical event preparedness and response coordinator at Augusta University, attended the NFPA conference and was asked if Augusta could lead the nation in the new standard. The COVID-19 pandemic put it on hold for some years, but it’s now getting its second wind.
Next, leaders in the campaign will travel to Washington, D.C. to talk about the drill experience. In June, they’ll go to the NFPA convention in Las Vegas to present at a conference.
#strongaugusta partners include:
- Augusta University Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response
- Augusta University Center of Operational Medicine
- Augusta University Police Department
- Augusta University Communications and Marketing
- Richmond County Sheriff’s Office
- Augusta Richmond County Fire and EMA
- Richmond County Marshall’s Office
- Richmond County Board of Education Police Department
- National Fire Protection Association
- Doctors Hospital
- Piedmont Hospital — Augusta
- Paine College
- Augusta office of the FBI
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security — CISA
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security — Center for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
- U.S. Army ARCYBER G34 Protection
- Fort Gordon Cyber Center of Excellence Anti-terrorism
- Fort Gordon Cyber Center of Excellence Emergency Management
