First responders train for active shooter scenarios at Georgia Southern Armstrong campus

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - First responders are receiving three days of training on how to handle events such as school shootings at the Georgia Southern Armstrong campus.

The course is part of a FEMA-funded program called Active Shooter Incident Management Training, or ASIM. Officers and first responders use laptops and walkie-talkies to move through simulations and communicate back to a command post.

Coordinating across agencies

ASIM instructor Mark Rhame said the course is designed to align law enforcement, fire and EMS under a single response plan.

“We can’t have law enforcement have a game plan going this direction, while fire and EMS has a game plan going this direction — it doesn’t work,” Rhame said.

Rhame said the scenarios they simulate are not common, but added: “The bottom line is that they do occur.”

Drawing on past events

Rhame referenced mass shootings at Sandy Hook High School and the Pulse nightclub during the training.

“All of these places had significant mass casualty events because of an active shooter, they probably said the same thing — ‘we thought we were prepared, but we probably weren’t,’” Rhame said.

Simulation in progress

Additional instructors monitored the simulation, tracking progress and working to improve communication among the multiple agencies involved.

Instructor Walter Andino described one stage of the exercise: “So basically what’s happening right now is they’ve taken care of the medical mission, all the patients are transported to the local hospital.”

Connection to real events

Rhame and other instructors conducted the same simulation last year in Statesboro. The Oglethorpe Mall shooting occurred during that three-day training. Rhame said first responders are now trained for the day another event occurs.