Chester County First Responders Race to School Shooting Drill

Editor's Note: This was a drill. The events described in this story were simulated by police, fire and ambulance companies to create a scenario as close to real-life as possible. No one was injured or killed.

9-1-1 Center Gets The Call

The call went out just before noon on Tuesday.  Reports of a gunman opening fire inside Conestoga High School. In less than a minute you could hear the sirens approaching the area. As the first Tredyffrin Police cars turned the corner from Conestoga Road and raced into the parking lot across the street from the building entrance on Irish Road they turned off their lights and sirens. With the clock ticking and every second counting, the first of the first responders don't want to a gunman know where they are.

First Responders Begin Pouring In
The cops are on the scene in a matter of minutes. More keep coming, then more and then still more. First from Tredyffrin Township, then from Easttown Township, then from Chester County Sheriffs, The District Attorney's office and the Chester County SWAT Team.  At the same time ambulances and fire rescue trucks carrying heavy equipment and, even more importantly trained EMT's and paramedics, begin arriving and filling the parking lot of Conestoga High School.

Time is critical, but so is safety. Tredyffrin Police Public Information Officer Detective Sgt. Todd Bereda offered a running play-by-play to reporters who were gathered behind a fence on the school's baseball and football practice field to watch the exercise unfold. Bereda explained that the strategy in a shooting situation like this is to find and neutralize the gunman as fast as possible.  As soon as safely possible,  two armed officers in bullet proof vests are sent into the building to find the shooter. Before they can go in, they must be 'checked in' on the scene. It quickly becomes clear why there is a need for coordination of all first responders. There will be dozens and dozens of first responders on the scene within a very short time.  Their safety and knowing who is where are critical.

Find the Shooter, Help the Victims

Just as the first officers are sent into the building to find the shooter, EMTs begin setting up a triage unit on the grassy field across from the gymansium entrance of the school.  The first "victims" come out of the building under the protection of of a plain clothes Easttown Police Sergeant with a service revolver drawn and a Tredyffrin Police Sergeant armed with a rifle.  One of the victims screams hysterically, another moans from the pain of having been shot.

As the ijured are being brought out, more teams of police officers are gearing up and being sent in to pull the injured out of the building.  A report comes across the radio that there may be a second gunman.  Bereda tells reporters that police always assume there is at least one more shooter than reported in a situation like this.  Sometime during the next few minutes (reporters learned at the end of the exercise) the gunman (played by an experience police officer) is 'neutralized.'

The drill continues however, under the presumption that there is a second and possibly even more shooters still at large in the building.


Massive Response Builds Quickly

As teams of police are given the go-ahead from ranking officers to enter the building, more victims are brought out.  Each of the victims is brought out by an EMT or Paramedic and an armed police guard. 

Some the vicitms are carried out, some are brought out on desk chairs with wheels, still others are carried out in flexible "stretchers" first that resemble high-tech blankets with a backboard.

Each of the victims is first checked by a medic at the entrance to the make shift trauma treatment area.  Color coordinated plastic labels that look kind of like police tape are tied to their arms or legs. Black means the patient is dead or has no real chance of survival under these conditions. Red is the most serious who get first attention.  Yellow and green follow. 

Where the Injured are Sent for Treatment

As EMTs and paramedics from ambulance companies all over the region, including East Whiteland, West Chester's Good Fellowship Ambulance Corps,  Marple Township (in Delaware County) as well as Berwyn, Paoli, Radnor and Malvern give emergency first aid, the head of the Berwyn Fire Company Ambulance determines which hospital victims will be sent to and how they will get there. Some are flown by chopper, most are driven by ambulance.  The first and worst of the victims are taken to nearby Paoli Hospital, which is Chester County's only trauma unit.  Paoli, like any other hospital, can only handle so many trauma cases at the same time.

Other critically injured victims are assigned to the Hospital of the Unversity of Pennsylvania trauma unit in Philadelphia, Crozier Hospital's Trauma Center in Chester, CHOP and the A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children trauma Center in Wilmington. Those with non-life threatening injuries might be sent to a local hospital like Chester County Hospital in West Chester which is not a trauma center.

SWAT Team Moves In

While the injured are being brought out, the heavily armed and body armor-clad Chester County SWAT team gears up to move in.  The team is made up of specially-trained police officers from police departments all over Chester County. Some arrive in private cars from home. Others race to the scene from locations all over the county.  When they move in, they ride on the outboard platform of their armored vehicle, then proceed on foot in a defensive "V" formation.  They go into the building, out of site of reporters, to assist in the room by room search for additional possible shooters.

In less than two hours (faster than the exercise planners had expected) the victims have all been brought out and sent to hospitals and the building has been checked for additional shooters and secured.

The Final Results

In the end, Tredyffrin Police Lt. Leon Jaskuta who designed and coordinated the training exercise reports that the lone gunman was "neutralized." Five people died in the simulated exercise/drill and more than two dozen others suffered injuries that ranged from life-threatening to scrapes and scratches.

Jaskuta says this was the first live exercise of its kind at Conestoga. Officers and participants from the participating organizations say it is a valuable experience because "table top" simulation drills don't provide the same kind of hands-on experiences for first responders.  Several teenage EMT's from The Good Fellowship Ambulance Corps in West Chester participated as victims.  They told Patch the exercise gave them a new perspective on what it's like to be the person being treated by an EMT.