LOUD explosions followed by screams were heard at the former Koresca Hotel in Koblerville yesterday as students were evacuated during a shooting training conducted for 30 local police officers.
Department of Public Safety acting spokesman Jason T. Tarkong said the scenario involved a terrorism-related incident at a school with 19 students from the Workforce Investment Agency assigned to DPS as participants.
Idaho-based Government Training Institute training director Dennis O’Connor said the week-long Immediate Action Team training is being conducted for officers in schools, malls, churches and other settings.
“This is a terrorism-related course where the police officers as first responders are trained to make an entry and move down hallways in buildings, shoot while moving and situation awareness training,” O’Connor said.
He added that the course provides law enforcement officers with proven tactics and techniques in dealing with active shooter and terrorist incidents to include the school setting.
He said the location where yesterday’s training proved a little difficult for the officers because of the open spaces.
“The building has balconies and doors in each room and this proves a challenge because it is more difficult when you work in wide, open areas,” O’Connor said.
The 30 officers from DPS, boating safety, patrol division, ports and airport police will also undergo training on tactical shooting skills using paintball and live fire training.
Homeland Security for CNMI training coordinator Patricio Tudela said that the training is very necessary for the police officers.
He said the training which is funded by the federal government would help the officers in dealing with situations which may arise without warning.
Police Capt. Pete Leon Guerrero said having the instructors from Idaho come here is much cheaper than sending a few officers to the mainland for training.
“We can’t wait for actual rampage shootings and other terrorist activities to happen before we get our first responders prepared, and CNMI don’t have any other means of training its officers except to get instructors from the mainland who are the experts,” Leon Guerrero said.
He said t they should have started the trainings last year yet but funding was not available.
With O’Connor are two other instructors from Idaho State University — John Pompi and Travis Peterson.
