Active shooter situations are becoming all too common around the country.
Emergency personnel in Attala County made sure they were prepared for a worst-case scenario last Thursday, participating in an active shooter drill.
“Our ultimate goal is training for all of our personnel to work together and look at our emergency response and planning,” Emergency management director Danny Townsend said. “We want to be able to find our strengths and weaknesses and improve in areas where we are weak.”
In the scenario, which is federally mandated, law enforcement attempted to locate and neutralize an active shooter that went between Premier Medical Rehab on Autumn Ridge Rd. and the former Attala Education Center on Hwy. 12. Fire Department and EMS personnel provided care to the wounded individual while law enforcement secured the scene and subdued the suspect.
“A scenario like this could happen all most anywhere that you have a large group of people,” Townsend added. “If it had been a real scenario it would be much larger, but this was an in-county drill that involved all of our local emergency personnel.”
The emergency response exercise has been in the works for months as the pinnacle to periodic training exercises.
“I think it went pretty smooth,” Townsend said. “You always have some hiccups, but overall everyone worked well together and it had a good outcome.”
The drill involved officials from Kosciusko Police Department, Kosciusko Fire Department, Kosciusko/ Attala E-911, Kosciusko / Attala Emergency Management, Attala County Sheriff’s Office, Attala County Fire, Medstat EMS, Attala County Coroner, Mississippi Emergency Management. Other entities involved include Baptist Attala, Premier Medical, Attala Nursing Home, Mississippi State Veterans Home, Mayor Jimmy Cockroft and County Supervisor Tim Pinkard.
