Mass shooter training held at Haslett Middle School

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — A mass shooting is a scenario that no one wants to experience, but law enforcement is training to mitigate these types of threats—no matter where they may happen. The Meridian Township Police Department and the Ingham County Sheriff’s Department visited Haslett Middle School on Thursday as part of their yearly training.

“And we will continue to train and be prepared for this kind of incident if it happens, and hopefully it never does,” said Captain Bart Crane, Public Information Officer for the Meridian Township Police Department.

6 News sat in on the training drills.

“This training has to be instant, it has to be almost without thought,” said Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth. “God forbid this was to happen here again in our community, this training makes us as ready as we can be, to make sure we take out the threat and save as many lives as we can.”

The 8-hour active shooter response training was designed to get as close to the real thing as possible, with shooters placed in random rooms, firing actual training rounds at the officers.

“It really makes it just about as real-life as it can possibly be,” said Wriggelsworth.

“The hallways and dealing with that sort of stuff, it’s just a good experience for us to get in here where we might actually be responding as supposed to doing it in a sterile environment that doesn’t have furniture or lockers or that kind of thing,” said Crane.

These types of drills happen during the summer when school is out in hallways quarantined off from any other staff. Quick rotations force officers to go from a relaxed environment straight into action.

“When it happens, you don’t have time, really to put a plan together, ” said Wriggelsworth. “You don’t have to time to rethink or retread what you learned in the past.”

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