Last night I had an amazing opportunity to help the SWAT team. They needed volunteers to play the roles of victims of a mall shooting. There was about 20 volunteers there, so they assigned a few to be wounded, a few to be hostages, and a few to be runners (running away from the gunshots).
For the first scenario, I was a wounded victim. I pretended to have been shot in the side and crawled under a bench. We were supposed to scream, cry, yell, cuss if we had to to try to get the SWAT guys to break their concentration and come rescue us. Since no one told me when to stop acting, I "stayed in character" for a long time. They had to carry me out of the mall, stand guard over me while a medical truck came, load me into the truck, and take me to the Command Post. I was an early victim, so I got to listen to the rest of the mission from CP. What an experience- I got to hear the whole thing!
After the first scenario was finished, they wanted to run another, shorter one where roles would be switched for the volunteers. Since the first scenario had 2 male shooters, they wanted to have a female shooter... yeah.... they choose me..... They gave me a real gun (not plastic) and told me my job was to run around at the back of the building to see how the SWAT team would react to moving targets, especially for the snipers. I don't think I've ever run faster- you would too if you were a moving target. :) Once the squad had moved more into the store, I hid down a hall. When they got to the very end of the hall, I had to walk briskly toward them and hold my gun out like I was surrendering. As soon as they spotted me, they were yelling at me to drop the gun and get down on the ground. But as I was about to surrender my gun, I ran behind a wall, bullets flying at me. Then they started to negotiate with me. I really had to dig deep and try to respond like a terrorist, which is a LOT harder than you think, especially when you know you're about to "die." Anyway, I turned the corner, made one shot before the entire squad of 50 men opened fire. Talk about intense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was a once in a lifetime opportunity- I still can't believe I did it. If you can believe it, the above is a brief summary of everything that happened. Incredible!!! I really enjoyed helping the SWAT team train, it's so important for them to have it as realistic as possible so that if a shooting ever does occur, they have an idea of what to expect. Don't mess with the SWAT team, they're amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
