Active Shooter Training at Northridge Mall a success

While most of us were sleeping, a small army of law enforcement were stationed at the Northridge Mall in Salinas for an active shooter drill. The drill involved 14 agencies from around the Central Coast.

The parking lot was filled with first responders Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

“The goal here tonight is to work together to train on active shooter/mass casualty instances, and to work on our ability to function under chaotic circumstances. This is something we’ve trained for before and this is affording us an opportunity to train together and work together in a realistic environment to train for an incident we pray never occurs,” Salinas Police Commander, John Murray.

Salinas police organized the drill over the course of eight months, it is funded in part by a grant of more than $30,000 dollars from Homeland Security. Around 14 different agencies participated in the training.

“When it’s over we will debrief and see what we can learn and what we could have done better. And continue to build upon our collaborate effort to be able to respond to these instances, be resilient and better serve the public.” said Murray.

Commander Murray said it’s the responsibility of police to first neutralize the threat, then rescue survivors and care for the wounded. Sixty volunteers from Hartnell College and Monterey peninsula college helped make the drill seem more realistic. Natividad Medical Center also ran a mass casualty drill in conjunction with this one.