Walmart Shooting: Colorado Cops Train For Active Shooters

THORNTON, CO -- The day after the Walmart shooting incident that killed three shoppers about ten miles north of Denver, Thornton Mayor Heidi Williams thanked the police and emergency medical personnel that responded quickly to the incident.

"Our first responders showed up well-trained and and worked well together to quickly solve this crime," she said. "I want to thank our neighboring jurisdictions who responded; We had so many folks from around the whole metro area from different public safety units responding to help."

Metro Denver and Front Range law enforcement agencies have mutual-aid agreements to help each other in emergencies. But more importantly, they have an understanding of emergency situations, thanks to lessons learned from mass-shootings in 1999 at Columbine High School shootings and in 2012 at Aurora's Century 16 Theaters.

"Even before 911, the Columbine High School shootings changed how Denver and Colorado practiced and coordinated our training," said Ryan Broughton, Denver's city and county executive director of the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (OEMHS) in an October interview.

At the Walmart, the Thornton police were assisted by Adams County Sheriff's officers, as well as neighboring police departments and officers from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI. Federal agents also assisted when Thornton officers arrested suspect Scott Ostrem, 47, of Arvada in a traffic stop Thursday morning.

Thornton Walmart Shooting: 3 Dead, Suspect Arrested

Columbine changed the police approach to active shooters, said Officer Ken Forrest, spokesman for the Aurora Police Dept. Aurora PD sent SWAT officers in a armored LENCO Bear police vehicle to the Thornton Walmart incident, along with two K9 bomb-trained police dogs.

"Before Columbine, the philosophy back in the day was the first on the scene would create a perimeter and wait for the SWAT team to come out," Forrest said. "But with these active shooters, they’re going after people, so we need to stop it ASAP. You have to respond immediately, so the first officers on the scene [are trained to] go in and stop the threat. Even two patrol officers can stop something." Aurora's SWAT team helped evacuate the Walmart of hundreds of panicked customers, and provided backup in case there was a more serious situation, such as possible explosives.

Trooper Gary Cutler, public information officer for the Colorado State Patrol, said CSP officers engage in cross-training with other jurisdictions to learn how other police agencies do things. CSP officers assisted with traffic control at the Walmart, Cutler said.

"In a situation like that, if the Thornton police had needed additional manpower to go in, we we have the training to go ahead and pursue what's needed, as necessary." Cutler said cross-training helps different agencies become familiar with their counterparts' methods. "Training with multiple agencies helps us learn each others' tactics," he said.

Denver's Broughton has been organizing training and coordination exercises for police, fire and ambulance personnel to react to mass crisis events.

More than 1,700 police, fire and EMS personnel have been trained in caring for casualties and victim rescue, including the use of tourniquets in Denver, Jefferson, Arapaho, Douglas and Adams Counties, Broughton said in October. Twenty-six law enforcement jurisdictions in 10 counties participate in the Urban Area Security Initiative to share information, he said.

Lakewood Police Dept. PIO Steve Davis said local police departments are always learning from emergency situations such as the Walmart shooting. Police departments around the country have changed their tactics for situations such as barricaeded gunmen or mass shooting events.

"Incidents like these constantly change the way we train and work with one another" Davis said. "Out of each one comes quite a few lessons learned.

Denver has even developed a training course for city and county employees to learn about what to do if they find themselves in an active shooter situation.

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Crews and police work at the scene in response to a shooting at Walmart in Thornton, Colo., Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017. John Leyba/The Denver Post via AP