CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Richard Ramirez is a Precinct 5 Constable going through mandatory Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) active shooter training. In one scenario, he's the first officer to arrive at Calallen Middle School. The scenario is like the one at Virginia Tech in 2007 when a gunman killed 32 of his classmates and teachers before turning the gun on himself.
One shot was fired off as Ramirez searched the school for the shooter.
Precinct 3 Sgt. Justin Martinez was one of the trainers teaching this week long course mandated by Gov. Abbott.
"All we can do is hope that they take the training to heart and understand you can do the job but you have to have the courage to do it," Martinez said.
That comment and this training are in response to the Uvalde school massacre, a police response that was an abject failure.
"We are doing this training here so that we don't have that same issue here," Martinez said.
DPS Trooper Gabriel Green was helping train these first responders. He urged them to adapt and have a plan.
"We need an immediate action plan so just don't forget in case something else happens like there's more gunshots or there's more explosions or whatever there is, that you have some kind of plan in place for that," Green said.
Firefighters and EMS workers also took part in this training.
Capt. Armando Tunchez with the Alice Fire Department said it teaches them to go into the school quickly.
"That is our goal to be able to get all of our personnel in there when it is still in the warm zone, when it still hasn't been cleared," Tunchez said. "So, we would be able to stop people from dying in and get those people out as quickly as possible."
After that active shooter training scenario it was time for everybody to sit down and figure out what they did right and what they did wrong. Martinez said they did make mistakes, but he's glad that happened here where they still have time to fix what went wrong.
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