MUW and Columbus Police team up for active-shooter training

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Knowing how to communicate when there’s an active shooter can save lives.

Mississippi University for Women and Columbus police departments co-hosted an active shooter program this week on campus.

The hands-on experience focuses on how emergency responders talk with each other during an active shooter incident.

Area law enforcement are put in active simulation training, classroom work and medical care.

Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training or ALERRT provides the knowledge officers need when the call goes out.

“We teach life saving skills. So our three priorities are to stop the killing when people are actively assaulting others, and then next we change gears to stopping the dying and then getting people to a hospital as quickly as possible,” said ALERRT instructor Jake King.

The nation-wide program is sponsored by federal grants and Texas State University.

Agencies do not pay for the training.