Hospital, college to cooperate for active shooter drill Oct. 1

McCOOK, Neb. -- Community Hospital of McCook will be conducting a mock active shooter incident at McCook Community College at 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1.

The drill is a way to test collaboration between all responding agencies, said Dari Olson, safety director at Community Hospital.

"It's not only for first responders, to see how they can deal with multiple victims and injuries, but also for first receivers, like the hospital," Olson said.

"It would be naive to think that something like this would never happen in our community."

The re-enactment will include law enforcement, such as McCook Police and Sheriff's office, McCook Fire Department, EMTs and Community Hospital. Several area hospitals will be sending representatives as observers. As the practice will be as realistic as possible, McCook Fire Chief Marc Harpham will be contacting residents on East Third and L Street, and on M Street by the college, as traffic in that area may be restricted as part of the drill. EMS personnel will set up a triage area for "victims," once the scene is secured by law enforcement.

An actor will play the part of the active shooter and MCC students have volunteered to be shooting victims, Olson said. Different types of wounds will be replicated on victims, using makeup.

Additional volunteers will act as family members, friends or faculty, coming to the hospital for information. "This will be a good opportunity, not only for the responding agencies, but for businesses and other schools to review and discuss their plans for this type of incident," Olson said.