Nightmare: Simulation replicates mass shooting
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Mark Corson, gesturing at center, a Northwest Missouri State University professor and retired U.S. Army general, is shown at a triage area set up during Saturday’s active-shooter simulation at Northwest Missouri State University.
For two hours this weekend, Northwest Missouri State University was the scene of unimaginable violence and tragedy.
Fortunately it was just a drill.
Around 50 law enforcement officers and first responders from three counties assembled on campus Saturday for FX ’17.
The “active shooter” simulation — FX stands for field exercise — tested how authorities could and would respond to a mass shooting of the sort committed 10 years ago at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University — Virginia Tech.
On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho, a senior at the university, shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others in two separate attacks before committing suicide.
The episode sparked a revolution in the way law enforcement trains for and responds to the kind of active-shooter attacks that have become an all too common feature of America’s cultural landscape.
Reporters were not allowed into the campus’ Valk Center, where most of the exercise took place, but were admitted to a classroom in nearby Wells Hall, where the simulation was broadcast over a pair of large flat-screen televisions.
At 10 a.m., a heavyset bearded man in a dark jacket burst into Valk carrying a military-style rifle and a semi-automatic handgun. The killer proceeded to systematically stalk through hallways and classrooms, gunning down role-players who were essentially portraying themselves as students, teachers and university staff.
After maybe five minutes of carnage, a pair of Northwest police officers appeared on camera armed with a rifle and a pair of handguns.
Ignoring students and others lying wounded — as officers are now trained to do — the pair of blue-shirted cops moved stealthily through the corridors, covering each other’s back, until they encountered the suspect and instantly shot him dead.
A civilian might think that would be the end of it, but the drill was only just beginning. For another half-hour and more a growing number of officers entered Valk and began securing the building room by room, guns held high as the wounded lay around them in pretend agony. One of the civilian victims removed his belt and used it as a tourniquet.
Mysteriously, or so it seemed at first, two seeming innocents were handcuffed by officers and locked in a guarded room. It was revealed later during a mock press conference that the men were role-playing law-abiding citizens who happened to be carrying concealed firearms.
Lt. Mike Ceperley, the Northwest Police Department officer in charge of the simulation, said the prospect of armed citizens swept up in a mass shooting is simply a reality law enforcement has to deal with in a time when many states, including Missouri, continue to relax gun laws.
For the present, it is still illegal to carry a concealed firearm on a public university campus, but Ceperley said that, given the mood of Missouri’s gun-friendly General Assembly, that could soon change.
The reality of concealed carry, he said, slows down police response times in a mass-shooting situation and also places anyone who happens to be packing a gun in danger of being mistaken for an assailant.
In addition, as was made apparent during the simulation, officers are now trained to frisk people for firearms before taking time to aid the wounded.
Northwest conducts active-shooter drills three times a year, but Saturday’s exercise was first of its size and scope since 2007.
Participants included agents from the state fire marshal’s office and the FBI. Other agencies on scene comprised Maryville Public Safety, the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office, the Atchison and Andrew County sheriff’s offices, the State Emergency Management Agency, Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Nodaway County Ambulance District mass casualty unit.
Ceperley began planning the simulation nearly a year ago, and intensive preparations have been taking place for the past six months.
Other key planning personnel included Maryville Public Safety Sgt. Rex Riley, Sgt. Tom Ziegler and Trooper Jim Farmer of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, MPS Officer Seth Rucker, Nodaway County Deputy Austin Hann and Nodaway Deputy Michael Clements.
Asked to name the result he most wanted from the exercise, Northwest Police Chief Clarence Green said he simply hoped all of the officers and responders involved “learned one thing” they hadn’t thought of before.
“There are tons of things we’ve never thought of,” Green said. “Sometimes you start to group-think, and then someone else says, ‘Well, that’s a no-brainer.’”
Maryville Public Safety Director Keith Wood compared the reason for the drill to the mindset many coaches encourage in their athletes.
“We play how we practice,” Wood said, adding that the exercise forced officers to think about things that can’t be simulated, like cell phone-warned parents rushing to an active crime scene to rescue their children, heedless that bullets may still be flying.
Following the exercise, officers and others involved in the drill gathered for a debriefing and informal luncheon. Even though it had all been make-believe, the tension level that had risen to an almost physical pitch during the simulation lessened considerably.
But Ceperley was still on edge.
An admitted perfectionist, he said he was concerned about a number of things that hadn’t come off quite right.
First of all, there were communications miscues “right off the bat,” both equipment failures and procedural shortcomings.
Also, the longstanding law enforcement bugaboo — interagency cooperation — proved problematic, Ceperley said.
Then there was the less-than-perfect response by a “second wave” of responders charged with caring for the wounded and making triage decisions about which victims needed help first.
Still, stopping to think for a moment after rambling a bit about things that didn’t come off according to plan, Ceperley seemed to lose a little of his adrenalin rush.
“Actually it went really well,” he said. “That’s what you want out of an exercise like this.”
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUMr
Northwest Missouri State University police officers retrieve weapons after shooting and killing an “active shooter” during Saturday’s hostile assailant simulation in Valk Center. Nearly 50 officers and first responders from three counties took part in the event, which has been in the planning stages for much of the past year.
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Northwest Missouri State University students, with their hands up to show that they are no threat to law enforcement officers, leave the Valk Center during Saturday’s active-shooter simulation.
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
State troopers gather at the “site command” post during Saturday’s mass-shooting simulation at Northwest Missouri State University. Northwest conducts active-shooter drills three times a year, but Saturday’s exercise was first of its size and scope since 2007.
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Nodaway County Sheriff Randy Strong, Northwest Missouri State Police Chief Clarence Green and Maryville Public Safety Director Keith Wood, pictured from left, participate in a mock press conference Saturday during a campus active-shooter simulation. According to the scenario, 13 students were wounded and the lone assailant was shot down by Northwest police officers.
