The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in partnership with the Douglas County Fire Department, Douglas County Board of Education, Douglas County Emergency Management Agency, Douglas County Emergency 911, Douglas Wellstar Hospital, Douglasville Police Department, Georgia Emergency Management Agency, Georgia State Patrol, Cobb/Douglas Public Health, Air Methods, and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office conduced an active shooter training exercise on July 25th, 2018. This large-scale training drill was meant to test the resources of all the above-mentioned agencies in an effort to better prepare Douglas County First Responders in the event of a mass casualty active shooter event. This event was carefully planned beginning in January of this year and included hours of planning as well as one table top exercise conducted early in the planning stages.

This full-scale training exercise consisted of a scenario in which an armed intruder entered Mason Creek Middle School as an active shooter. Over 200 civilian volunteers participated in this event as well as over 125 first responders and emergency care providers to simulate as realistic an event as possible. Numerous police, fire and EMS units from many agencies responded to the school during the drill, including a simulated helicopter evacuation of a victim by Air Methods. Dozens of site safety officers were in place to ensure that the drill was completed as safely as possible.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank everyone involved in this large-scale training event. While we hope that we’ll never have to implement this kind of response, it’s better to plan and train for the worst than to be caught unprepared.