Riley County first responders hold emergency training exercise
MANHATTAN (KSNT) - Law enforcement and first responders in Riley County are preparing for the worst.
The Riley County Police Department, Riley County Emergency Medical Services, and the Manhattan Fire Department are training for an active shooter situation. The Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office also has been a part of the training.
The exercise is being held at Manhattan Catholic School this week. Officials are learning best practices of response, apprehension, treatment and transport. They’re trying to perform under pressure and work together.
"Mass chaos, we tried to make these scenarios as absolutely real as possible. We have great role players," said Tim Schuck, lieutenant with RCPD.
The training is supposed to prepare officials for a problem, either at a school or anywhere.
"Look at past incidents that have happened, and try to recreate those scenarios, so it's not anything that's out of the norm, but it's actual based off of real events," said Mark Whitehair, battalion chief with MFD.
It includes actors with fake wounds, people yelling and guns shooting blanks.
"Very realistic, you’ll see a lot of the reactions from our employees and our individuals here," said Josh Gering, assistant director for Riley County EMS. "You can tell that the stress is there, which is good, that’s what we want to mimic and we want to learn how to conduct these operations in an environment like this."
The three day exercise began on Tuesday and will wrap up on Thursday.