Brazos County agencies prepare for worst case scenario

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – An active shooter at an elementary school is one of the worst calls first responders prepare for. Thursday, that’s exactly what agencies from across Brazos County did to ensure they’re ready to keep citizens safe if the call ever comes.

“We want to put ourselves through the steps that we’re going to have to go through in the first 10 or 15 minutes so that when we have to actually do them or familiar with the steps so that we don’t leave something out so that we don’t make mistakes that could cost people their lives,” College Station Fire Department Capt. Stuart Marrs said.

This wasn’t police training but rather an active attack integrated response. This included officers from College Station and A&M police, College Station Fire and EMS, Brazos County Sheriff Deputies and private security officers.

The training required the agencies to work together as they neutralized the shooter, located victims, extracted students and cleared the school. Marrs said training together will be vital for any potential future responses.

“When you go back and look at these incidents that have happened in schools, a lot of times they cite in the report and give as recommendations, which are things that we need to pay attention to, is that the agencies have never come together and practiced before and so that’s what we’re trying to fix,” he said.

This training took place at the College Hills Elementary School on Thursday. This is just one of nine College Station ISD campuses that will be used this summer for similar training. Assistant Principal Lindsay Dittmar, says while the idea of a response like this at the school is not something they want to think about, knowing everyone is prepared in case it does is what matters most.

“It brought me a lot of peace and comfort to see it happen to know that like, wow, they really are going to be ready to respond and you know help keep all of us safe if for some reason something would happen,” she said.

First responders utilized prop guns in the training, these come from a federal and state grant to ensure agencies can train in settings that are as realistic as possible. These will be shared and used for training with other agencies across the Brazos Valley.