Police at one department in the Capital Region held an active shooter training seminar, this coming months after the same department had to respond to the real thing. Michael Howard has the details on why police say the training has shown proven results.
ALBANY, N.Y. -- It was a day law enforcement personnel never hoped would happen, but almost two months ago it became reality.
Police say in November, 20-year-old Tasheem Maewether opened fire inside Crossgates Mall, causing panic for thousands of shoppers and employees, along with drawing hundreds of officers from surrounding districts. Luckily no one was hurt, and Maewether was later arrested.
On Wednesday morning inside the exact mall, an active shooter training seminar was held for mall employees and their families.
“We have some videos that we show, we talk about some previous events that have occurred, we talk about some of the mindset of both the shooter and of the victims,” said Guilderland's Deputy Chief of Police Curtis Cox.
Guilderland police began holding the seminar just over a year ago and held a class just weeks before November’s shooting.
“We’ve had many of those mall employees that were here for our training tell us when the real event happened, they were prepared for it and they knew exactly what to do at the time. It’s our intent today to get that message out to as many more mall employees as we possibly can,” said Cox.
The two-hour class gives participants steps on what to do during an active shooter incident, with hopes it will never become another reality.
“Should something happen we want them to have the mindset that they know what to do, they know what the initial reaction should be. And we want to give them options if certain things don't work, what they can do and we want to empower them," said Cox.