6 JANUARY 15 2013
Smoke Signals
cyDdlireirD Beamed a valuable Besses
TRAINING continued
from front page
They enlisted the help of Grand
Rondo schoolchildren and many
brought their own children to help
the effort.
"They enjoyed it and learned
quite a bit," said Grand Konde
Police Department Sgt. Jake McK
night, the Tribe's first police officer,
and one of those who participated
in the exercise. He brought four
of his children and one of their
friends: Lucas McKnight, 14; Trey
Lindekugel, 15; Jerron Lindekugel
and Jalyssa Lindekugel, both 11;
and friend Manny Spinks, 15.
"That was one of the biggest
things for role players, knowing
what you have to do and what the
cops are going to do. That's the rea
son I wanted my kids in it. They're
not going to do these kinds of exer
cises at school," McKnight said.
During exercises, children lined
up along a bank of lockers, sat
against a wall and hid behind a
door. Some were told to run this
way or that as groups of four-person
police teams moved past them
diamond-style, or in a Y, with guns
pointed and ready, checking each
door as they passed it.
Some children had to sit still and
stay down and some had to scream
as if thjair lives depended on it.
Police teams stormed the build
ing facing a number of different
possible threats.
Police participants learned dur
ing one raid that they focused too
much on the shooter. With the
apparent shooter down roughly in
the middle of the room, another
role player down by one wall and a
child hidden behind the door, four
officers with their guns pointed at a
downed shooter left many potential
threats uncontrolled.
Group after group of law enforce
ment personnel completed the ex
ercise with police on opposite sides
of a downed shooter, meaning that
if the shooter moved and one officer
had to shoot, another officer was
in the line of a potential ricocheted
bullet.
Teams were told again and again
to grab a child and find out where
i'Hf i a Jit
c' ran :
i hA n ill
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CD c -J
the active shooter(s) were and soon
caught on to how valuable small
eyewitnesses can be.
Different scenarios included a
shooter in one room, a shooter in
two rooms, hostages and blackouts.
The situations were devised and
overseen by Mike Herbes, a state
trainer from the Oregon Depart
ment of Public Safety Standards
-. ..
Grand Ronde Tribal Police Department Chief Alvin LaChance Jr., second
from left, listens as Mike Herbes, a training coordinator with the Oregon
Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, goes over his group's
performance in an active shooter training scenario at the former Grand
Ronde Middle School on Wednesday, Jan. 2. On the right is the man who
played the active shooter role.
and Training.
Herbes also reviewed how the
raids went.
"You want to dominate, eliminate
and then what?" Herbes asked a
group. "Control," he said, answer
ing himself. "You want to control
the room and that means all the
people in it."
Before the raids, Herbes gave
participating officers a couple of
hours of PowerPoint descriptions
that broke the process down into
bites, including proper mindset,
locating the shooting, room com
bat, common formations and room
clearing.
Police learned to take on known
dangers first while covering them
selves and their team members
as they went by open doors. To
simulate the sound of shooting,
participants smacked blocks of
wood together.
Police learned whom to shoot by
looking for hands holding weapons.
Sometimes cell phones in hands
also look like weapons so Herbes
stressed that a little study of pho
tographs of individuals holding dif
ferent objects would help. A hand
holding a gun doesn't really look
like a hand holding a cell phone
or texting, indicating that even
when time is vital, it pays to study
details.
Photos by Michelle Alalmo
From front to back, Kaleb Reid, Nick
Cotton, Dyami Eastman and Julius
Roan Eagle run from where an active
shooter is as law enforcement rush
to find the shooter during an active
shooter training exercise at the
former Grand Ronde Middle School
on Wednesday, Jan. 2.
Damien Findley, left, is told by Mike
Herbes, a training coordinator with
the Oregon Department of Public
Safety Standards and Training,
to stay still as he hides on top of
lockers during an active shooter
training exercise at the former
Grand Ronde Middle School on
Wednesday, Jan. 2.
Oregon State Police developed
this program in the late 1990s in
response to the 1998 Thurston High
School shooting in Springfield, and
the agency has been training local
police forces in the techniques ever
since. With the recent shooting
of schoolchildren in a Newtown,
Conn., elementary school, the train
ing took on even more timeliness
and importance.
Statistically, not many mass
murderers live long enough for the
police to confront them because
they often kill themselves when the
police arrive.
On hand for the practice sessions
was Senior Trooper Kendra Raiser,
a former SWAT team negotiator for
Oregon State Police.
"Everybody should have the
experience of working on a SWAT
team," Raiser said. They practice
in a variety of situations once a
month, she added.
Also on hand was State Trooper
Jess Oliver, a SWAT team member
who helped clear the lower level of
Clackamas Town Center during
the December shooting that killed
See TRAINING
continued on page 7