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The sound of simulated gunfire echoed throughout the Humanities building Thursday morning at Carson-Newman University as an active shooter scenario began.

This exercise was part of an effort to prepare responding agencies including the media, law enforcement and emergency medical services in the event of an active shooter on campus.

This event took place from approximately 8 a.m. – 11 a.m. and involved participation from Tennessee Highway Patrol, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency, Jefferson County EMS, Department of Public Safety, and other local law enforcement agencies.

Fire Chief Lee Turner, of the Jefferson City FD, detailed just why and how the exercise needed to take place.

“It’s very important for the departments to practice working together, often coordination and cooperation between departments is something that’s lacking in this type of training,” Turner said.

“Here we introduced all disciplines – Fire, EMS, even the health department was here to participate today.”

The exercise was purely for training purposes. Law enforcement and other emergency services responded to a scenario call of suspects – role-players – who entered the school and began firing blank ammunition at people – volunteers.

Volunteers called 9-1-1 on their cell phones and landlines to simulate the chaos of flooded phone lines, urgently asking help. One after the other, emergency vehicles such as police cruisers and ambulances rapidly pulled up to the scene and skidded to a halt as first responders sprinted to the Humanities building.

As suspects made their way through the building, casualties took their places on the ground and waited, crying out or silent, for Emergency Medical Services to arrive.

Law enforcement used fake firearms to clear the building room by room both in search of the suspect and to relay the extent of casualties over radio. Chatter over communications lines and shouting from police personnel echoed in the academic hall, simulating the true environment of a crisis.

“Your hands! Show me your hands!” Officers shouted upon finding the suspects.

“Multiple agencies bring together multiple responders using multiple frequencies, different tactics to operate in a common operating picture together,” Turner said.

Before the exercise convened, volunteers and first responders were all briefed by their respective leaders in charge, with the volunteers receiving “patient” cards detailing the severity of their injuries. These details helped emergency medical services and rescue squad members triage, or sort victims into categories as to who would need medical attention most immediately.

Tactics used in the exercise were centered on the suspects and shooting victim actors, and law enforcement carried out their tactics accordingly. The amount of preparation and coordination on first responders’ behalf was evident through the din of chaos during the drill.

“Planning a scenario like this takes about six months, if not more,” Turner said. “Approximately 50 or so responders participated in the exercise.”

Kevin Triplett, the Vice President of University Relations at CNU, also weighed in on the matter of conducting one of these drills.

“Today was a learning experience. As a University, we’re in the education business and the learning business and at times that’s not just the classroom but life itself. Unfortunately we have to be prepared for a lot of outside possibilities and today was a collaboration from a lot of law enforcement and first responder agencies from state level, regional level, multiple counties, county and city of Jefferson, all kinds of different agencies here on campus,” Triplett said.

Though students were not on campus, some professors and faculty of the University participated in the drill alongside law enforcement, strengthening the bond between school staff members and first responders.

“Having staff and faculty involved not only teaches them what to do in a situation, but what can happen in a situation. You know, what they may need to do but [also] what people may go through. Having them actively participate was a suggestion by the agencies involved,” Triplett said.

“When there aren’t as many people on campus in the summer we were pulling from a lot of different departments and we appreciate everyone’s participation. It [the exercise] certainly helped us – you know the security of our students, faculty and staff.”