'All I care about is that my kid comes home safe.' several agencies conduct active shooter drills in former South Amherst Middle School

SOUTH AMHERST — Shots rang out through the hallways as the sounds of boots hit the ground running and cries for help and screams. A woman was lying on her side, wounded, as an officer approached her calling for the ambulance as he rushed in to help. Sounds scary, right? Except none of this was real. Officers, firefighters and role-players assembled Tuesday morning at the former South Amherst Middle School, 152 W. Main St., for the second day of a countywide Active Shooter, Hostile Event Response (ASHER) event. The training is the brainchild of Dan Makruski of the Ohio School Safety Center, Lorain County Law Enforcement Chiefs Association and the Fire Chiefs Association. Makruski, who retired from the Amherst Police Department in February 2023, has years of experience conducting drills and active shooter exercises. But Tuesday's event was a first of its kind for the retired officer. Police and firefighters from Amherst, Avon, Avon Lake, Lorain, Elyria, Grafton and Oberlin filled the spots of 10 police officers and five firefighters/dispatchers involved in the exercises. The goal, Makruski said, is simple: Get everyone on the same page. "The goal is to build a training cadre or a training group of law enforcement officers and firefighters to train all the other law enforcement officers and firefighters in Lorain County," Makruski said. "When we build our training cadre in this class it's going to be awesome. We just have to figure out the right battle rhythm or the right way to do it and make sure we have enough instructors to be able to put on a class." The integration of police and fire is important, Dave Freeman, director of the Emergency Management Agency of Lorain County, said. "What we're doing is bringing everyone together and it's something they customarily don't do," Freeman said. "When I first became the EMA director here about a year ago, I went to a fire chiefs meeting and they were discussing active shooters. When I looked around the room, of course, there were no police there so when I asked how they were interacting, they said, well, we don't have that and I told them they needed to." Freeman said he first noted the importance of the connection when he was a fire chief in Cleveland Heights. Having worked with Makruski before, Freeman contacted him and explained that combined training is necessary. The next step was putting together the team and finding the training. "We had this company ALERRT come in and they are professionals, this is what they do," Freeman said. "So we're running through multiple scenarios today where we have active shooters in the building and then we walk them through the entire process." ALERRT, which stands for Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, is based in San Marcos, Texas, that is affiliated with Texas State University. The company was organized after the Columbine school shooting and operated in the Texas area until 2012 when the Sandy Hook shooting occurred. "Then-President Obama tasked the FBI and the Department of Justice with finding an active shooter program and they settled on ALERRT since we were already up and running for 10 years," said Will Mercado, a retired Austin police officer and instructor with ALERRT. "Every class outside of the state of Texas is funded by the Department of Justice and FBI and we've been to all 50 states and Australia, Guam and all over the world putting on the training." Makruski said ALERRT sends instructors and $95,000 worth of training equipment like radios, vests, shot boxes, machines that mimic the sound of gunshots fired, medical supplies and more for the 16-hour course. Makruski said Lorain County hopes to continue trainings in the future using its own materials. He also said that in the wake of nearing the second anniversary of the Uvalde, Texas, massacre, training has changed and that this course will serve as a way to usher in the safest way to bring students home in the event of another tragedy. "When officers responded to Columbine and nobody went in, we started training and saying "Hey, wait for two or three other officers to show up and then you'll go in like a quad formation to find the shooter," Makruski said. "Well, fast forward a couple more shootings and there's still one guy waiting for two other guys and every round is a kid or a victim dying so now we teach solo response. If you're the first person there, you're going in because the best way to stop it is to make contact and either engage the suspect or at least stop him from shooting people.'' Chad Pado with Industrial Realty Group Realty Advisors, which manages the former middle school, made the building available. "For us, having school-aged kids, this is near and dear to me and certainly if our company can help in any small way to keep kids in our community safe, we're going to do everything we can to be of assistance," Pado said. "All I care about is that my kid comes home safe every day. Math, science, all that stuff will happen later." Contact Lauren Hoffman at (440) 328-6902 or lhoffman@chroniclet.com.