It takes law enforcement on average 18 minutes to respond to an active shooter on a college campus. As MPB's Desare Frazier reports Jackson Police and Hinds County Sheriff's Deputies tactically removed students from a Tougaloo College building, as part of a training exercise.
"There was a lady screaming to the top of her lungs. She was frantic," said Hughes.
Adrian Hughes, an administrative assistant at Tougaloo College, describes what was going on inside Berkshire Cottage, a building on campus. Students, faculty and staff took part in an active shooter training exercise. Hughes laid on a classroom floor pretending she had been shot in the leg.
"It was very intense, kinda traumatizing, even though it didn't happen, it's just the guns getting pointed at you and everything like that," said Hughes
Hughes says seven out of eight students in the room were killed by the shooter in the scenario. She could hear gunfire as members of a swat team came in to see if they were alright. Sophomore Vidal Partee says he and some students were in a hallway when they spotted officers.
"When they came in they told us to hide and stay out of sight of the shooter so that we wouldn't get injured," said Partee.
As part of the exercise, more swat team members strategically entered the building, some escorted students out. Chief Edna Drake is over campus security. She's looking for any holes in how they would respond to an active shooter on campus.
"No plan is worth anything unless you test that plan. We want the campus community to be aware, knowledgeable, trained and know what to do and how to respond and react," said Drake.
Chief Drake says all nearby police on patrol would also respond to an actual shooter on campus along with the Metro Swat Team. The average response time to an active shooting on a college campus is 18 minutes.
