SWAT Team practices live shooter scenario

Mark Nugent hid in the closet at the lobby at Orchards Cinema when the mock gunman started shooting.

Tapped to role play in a police training exercise Thursday in the Lewiston Orchards, Nugent, a Lewiston police dispatcher, was one of eight volunteers who assisted the regional SWAT Team as it honed its tactical skills.

Thursday's exercise, which started in the morning and finished around 1 p.m., trained police and Lewiston Fire Department crew members to respond quickly to a real-life special weapons and tactics scenario. The exercise included a lone gunman who took hostages after a shooting in the movie theater. The character played by Nugent witnessed the shooting, then holed up in a closet and sent text messages to police based only on the sounds he heard from his cramped, dark hiding place.

"I relayed information to the police department," Nugent said. "Basically, I relayed what I could hear from inside the closet I was hiding in."

The exercise included negotiations with the shooter, a study of the building's floor plans and the formation of a strategy before SWAT Team members stormed the theater through two rear entrances. Thursday's scene culminated with emergency crews from the fire department hauling wounded bystanders and the injured suspect to a waiting ambulance.

When it was over, Nugent was escorted to safety by police.

SWAT commander and Lewiston Police Department Lt. Joedy Mundell was part of a team monitoring the situation from a nearby command post.

"We try to make it as real as possible," Mundell said.

Made up of Clarkston and Lewiston officers, the 14-member team practices a minimum of 10 hours a month, including live fire exercises and scenarios - such as the Orchards exercise - in places where live shooter scenarios have played out nationwide, Mundell said. The team has conducted training on the Lewis-Clark State College campus and at schools such as Lewiston High and Jenifer Junior High.

Statistically, mass shootings nationwide often involve smaller communities the size of Lewiston, Mundell said. Working together as a team, and combining resources with other agencies, allows a measure of preparedness in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley that may not be feasible for small, individual departments. By pooling resources, he said, "the SWAT Team is better equipped and better trained to go into those situations."

"I think our communities want to know that local police are prepared to respond to those type of incidents," he said.

The team is most commonly used in situations that may be too precarious for regular patrol officers, such as serving warrants on suspects known to have weapons or who have threatened police in the past, he said.

After Thursday's six-hour session, Mundell said it was time to reflect.

"It showed us where we need to improve," he said, "and what we're doing right."

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Bartholdt can be contacted at rbartholdt@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2275.