By Sarah Langbein
The Orlando Sentinel
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Smoke clouded the hallways of Osceola High School. Blasts of a shotgun echoed outside.
Four police officers masked by a shield made their way toward the shooter. Ahead of them: a downed officer, a classroom of screaming students and the gunman, who continued to pull the trigger.
The officers yelled: “Drop the gun! Drop the gun! Drop the gun!”
But the gunman pulled out a handgun and fled to another building. Officers followed. Soon, news crackles over radios: The officers have “two on the ground.”
For nearly seven years, the Kissimmee Police Department has been preparing its officers for this nightmare scenario — one similar to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.
Tuesday, the agency put about 60 of its officers through a staged event, made more intense with the help of smoke machines and screaming kids — summer-camp participants brought in for the exercise.
The objective: Find the shooter and stop him.
“You can only learn so much from a book, but then you have to go out and apply that practice,” Capt. James Napier said.
“We prepare for things like this,” he said.
The officers running the exercise huddled outside the building, empty of any students at that hour. Even the chief watched as the four-person teams pursued the gunman.
To prepare its officers, Kissimmee equipped each with a laptop, complete with maps of each school in the district. The idea was to give them a head start and a better understanding of their surroundings.
They also counted on cell-phone calls from inside the school to help them narrow in on the threat, Napier said.
“We’ve adopted a motto: `If you see it, say it,’ ” Napier said. “Tell us.”
Each officer went through the scenario twice and was critiqued by co-workers who looked on.
By the second round, the officers moved more smoothly and quickly to apprehend the shooter and his accomplice.
By the end, Napier said, “I’m very pleased with the way our officers have performed.”
Copyright 2007 Sentinel Communications Co.