Kapa‘a — Gunfire, explosives and the loud, barreling voices of commanding officers created a dramatic spectacle yesterday, as law enforcement responded to a simulated school shooting at Kapa‘a High School. Sirens blared as law enforcement in full gear responded to
Kapa‘a — Gunfire, explosives and the loud, barreling voices of commanding officers created a dramatic spectacle yesterday, as law enforcement responded to a simulated school shooting at Kapa‘a High School.
Sirens blared as law enforcement in full gear responded to shots, screams and fleeing perpetrators, as part of a mock shooting that involved at least four gunmen.
The drill began around 9 a.m., following a Thursday shooting simulation at the county courthouse.
The scenarios were part of the hard tactical training that included members of the Honolulu Police Department, including Craig Tavares, a former SWAT commander, and Officer Mike Tsuda.
Priority No. 1 was to disarm the shooters as quickly as possible, Sgt. Mike Begley said.
“The focus today was getting our personnel into the danger zone to stop the threat,” he said.
The drill ended by 2 p.m., and was done in part as a response to the school violence that has happened across the nation in recent years.
“We don’t want to live in a bubble,” he said. “Should something that tragic occur on Kaua‘i — we hope it will never happen — but if it did, we certainly want to be prepared to respond and minimize injuries.”
As part of the same training, law enforcement responded Thursday to a simulated scenario involving an armed militant group that attempted to kidnap a terror suspect on trial.
Securing the courthouse and surrounding area Thursday included using SWAT to get jurors to safety and making arrests.
More than 100 volunteers, including students from JROTC, collaborated to create chaos in both operations.
As emergency responders worked to secure the campus in a scene that evoked images of such infamous school shootings as Columbine and Virginia Tech, some students screamed and ran, while others fell. Those that were shot, moaned, covered in faux blood and holding onto spilled entrails.
Amidst the scene, the body of one student, 13-year-old Tylor Caneda, lay haphazardly on the front porch of a portable school building. Officers tagged him, marking him “DOA,” while rushing past to nab a gunman.
Breaking character for a moment to catch a peek at the officers, Caneda said he thought the experience was exciting.
“That bang scared the crap out of me,” he said of the cacophony of blanks and false explosives that were aiding as special effects.
Caneda had just fallen asleep while playing dead, he added.
Students acted as victims and eye witnesses, as Jacques Amo, 16, of Kapa‘a, said one of the shooters was blonde, noting the other appeared to have been a former Kapa‘a High School student wearing camouflage pants.
Keenan Woodward, also 16, also said he caught a glimpse of the shooters.
“He was about 5 foot 6, blue shirt, camo pants,” he said, hiding behind a dumpster.
The student volunteers— members of JROTC — have been under the tutelage of Sgt. Major Bill Barchers.
“We hope they’ll be future cops,” Begley said of the group.
The young military in training — even those pretending to be dying — tried to help officers catch the shooters.
Holding onto a pig liver that served as makeshift entrails resting on her ketchup-soaked T-shirt, Kalona Wanui, 17, pointed out the direction the shooters went.
As the “bad guys” marauded throughout the quad, another student, 14-year-old Bradley Peralta, of Kapa‘a, pretended to be waiting for help while resting against an outside wall. He said he was shot in both legs.
“I can’t get up, so they said, ‘wait here for a while,’” he said.
Officers told him help was on the way.
In yesterday’s reenactment, the training placed more focus on corralling the shooters than tending to victims, Begley said.
However, in real life, more resources would be available to ensure victims were promptly cared for, he added.
Had the focus yesterday been on tending to victims, members of the fire department and emergency medical services would have most likely placed greater focus on creating a triage for injured parties, assessing conditions and getting them to Wilcox Hospital or airlifting them off-island when needed, he said.
Firefighters and EMTs worked out strategy and documented the timeline at the command center, headed by Sgt. Henry Barriga at St. Catherine Catholic Church.
Barriga, SWAT commander, was in charge of managing various agencies, including traffic between officers and instructing units as needed.
There, police plotted a map with the locations of victims, backpacks — both suspicious and those believed to have been discarded by fleeing students — as well as possible bombs. Standing by, firefighters and EMTs awaited the “all clear” to be called into the scene.
Overall, Begley said, the drill — the first of its kind — was successful.
“This is the most realistic training scenario we’ve conducted,” he said. “Being prepared and letting people know we’re prepared we hope will serve as a deterrent.”
• Amanda C. Gregg, assistant editor/staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or agregg@kauaipubco.com.
