NEWS

City police learn how to take on shooters alone

Caitlin Turner
cturner3@chillicothegazette.com

CHILLICOTHE – City schools should have an extra sense of security after training showing Chillicothe police officers how to confront active shooters alone.

Assistant law director Carrie Rowland runs into a classroom with a pellet gun as she and members of the Chillicothe Police Department go through an active shooter scenario with Detective Jason Gannon at the old Western School. Friday’s training focused on what officers should do when they are first on the scene and how to proceed after backup has joined them.

"Whatever you have to do to get to the person who is taking lives, you do," city police Detective Jason Gannon said.

Gannon hosted city police officers for two days of rapid deployment, awareness, intervention, decisiveness, EMS and recovery training Thursday and Friday at the old Western School building. The training allowed officers to gain experience in confronting a shooter situation alone, in pairs and with four officers available.

Gannon said officers are often out-gunned and out-manned when approaching a situation in which a suspect has a weapon and is threatening the public. The key to gaining the upper hand, Gannon said, is to have quick engagement and search the area for the assailant slowly and carefully.

Officers drawing attention to themselves also can distract the suspect.

"You want to become the focus of his attention and draw that away from kids," Gannon said.

Using techniques such as shouting, throwing objects and verbal prompts can help keep the armed suspect caught between the moments of deciding what to do next and taking action, Gannon said.

The department previously trained teachers in the city school system to barricade classrooms and to understand how police move through a school on lockdown.

More often than not, Gannon said, the suspect is going to commit suicide rather than be arrested. According to Gannon, 93 percent of armed suspects who become cornered by police after entering public buildings commit suicide.

Members of the Chillicothe Police Department go through an active shooter scenario with Detective Jason Gannon at the old Western School. Friday’s training focused on what officers should do when they are first on the scene and how to proceed after backup has joined them.

Capt. Kevin Teeters said the minutes it takes for backup to arrive to an officer responding to an emergency call alone are crucial, and the traditional training of waiting for at least four officers to arrive before entering a building containing a suspect risks the lives of innocent people inside.

"Everything comes down to seconds and inches," Teeters said.

Teeters said officers are trained to recognize a "priority of life" in armed suspect situations with the victims coming first, the officers second and the assailant third.

"When somebody is shooting, we are in a a position where we are sworn to protect, no matter what," Teeters said. "We are trained to sacrifice ourselves, no matter what."