Springdale law enforcement and school officials took part in an active shooter training exercise at Shiloh Christian School on Thursday (Jan. 2). The campus was on lock-down, there were armed suspects, hostages, students injured and officers with weapons roaming the halls.
"Everybody here at the school is going to know what's going on and they are going to know the script but the officers showing up aren't going to know anymore than what gets reported over 911 and relay to them through dispatch," said Lt. Derek Hudson with the Springdale Police Department.
Hudson said the department has attended trainings across the country but it's the first large-scale experience they've had. The goal in this live training scenario is to find the suspects and save lives.
"This is definitely a law enforcement incident but the fire department is going to play a big role and we need to train with the police department," said Capt. David Kissinger, with the Springdale Fire Department.
Kissinger said firefighters and emergency responders need to know the most effective way to help as many victims as possible.
"With the mass casualty incident we need to actually get in, rapidly extricate and start treating patients," Kissinger said.
Each department plans to regroup and look at what was done right and what needs work. Hudson said it's possible they'll have more active shooter trainings in the future.
"For the police department it allows us to identify any issues or anything that we need to work on to deal with a large scale active shooter environment like this," Hudson said.