Officers train at OSU

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Story Published: May 3, 2007 at 4:44 PM PST

By Carla Castano

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The sound of gunfire rang out on the Oregon State University campus, it was all part of a training exercise.

The training usually takes place during the summer, this year it was moved to campus while classes were in session, after the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

The goal is to see how officers would handle a similar situation.

Dozens of officers acted out the scenario throughout the day.

They respond to a report of gunshots at Heckart Lodge on the campus of OSU.

Then they learn the shooter, is next door at Reed Lodge.

Lt. Phil Zerzan with Oregon State Police says, "We want them to be able to think on their feet to react and to provide a timely response."

The two vacant buildings were taken over for the training scenario of a shooter on campus.

Officers from Corvallis, Philomath, Benton County and Oregon State all had to work together, as they would if a shooter really was on campus.

With the sites and sounds of the Virginia Tech shootings fresh in the minds of students there was some concerns the scenario would cause more stress for students so the university took extra precautions to make sure everyone knew it was just a drill.

OSU Counselor, Ellen Taylor says, "students, faculty, staff were all informed by voice mail there's a broadcast voice mail that goes out to every body's phone the president sent that out."

Student Jenifer Hawkins tells us, "we got plenty of emails and there were signs all around the buildings we were pretty informed."

After the training exercise the officers held a private meeting to de-brief.

While they felt they were able to act quickly as situations changed, communication among the various agencies was tough because they use different radio systems and that is something they need to improve.

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