ATLANTA — With paint bullets representing rifle and pistol fire, and officers acting as students, victims and the shooter – Atlanta Police officers spent Thursday training for the worst. The active-shooter training took place at Venetian Hills Elementary School in southwest Atlanta.
"We just want our officers to be ready, we want to protect our citizens,” Atlanta Police Sgt. Stephen Krieger said.
In three different scenarios, they tested what should happen when a shooter walks in firing right away, a scenario when a shooter barricades themselves in a room with students, and how to react when a shooter is holding hostages.
Krieger said school shootings are unpredictable, but these scenarios are the most likely, and muscle memory is crucial.
“The better trained our officers are the better decisions they make under stress,” he said.
Each scenario was a single officer response so that they will be trained to immediately enter a school and eliminate a threat without having to wait for any backup.
Since most officers ride alone, waiting for backup could be the difference between life and death.
Thursday’s training was specifically for Tactical Field Operators. There are 100 TFOs in the department currently, who have 80 extra hours of training and 16 hours a month of additional training. But other officers can sign up for the training throughout the year.
Atlanta Police told 11Alive that the training was already scheduled for Thursday before the Texas school shooting, but after the tragedy in Uvalde, they made sure this training would include an active shooter inside a school.