CLARKESVILLE — Habersham County Sheriff's Office personnel are receiving some unique training as the result of unfortunate tragedies involving Georgia officers.
On Thursday, a group of deputies gathered to learn how to respond if they come under fire in their assigned patrol vehicle. This was the second such gathering for the counter-ambush training.
"We're trying to get it as realistic as possible," said Sheriff Joey Terrell. "When you look at the news, here in the state of Georgia we had two deputies ambushed right when they got out of the car."
Among that training was how to reach a weapon when under duress, such as gunfire, while seated in the confined passenger compartment of a patrol car, and how to seek cover when under fire.
"That's something that you're not taught in mandate or anywhere else; you're just taught to shoot your weapon, so we've just tried to take it up a notch and have them shoot from their vehicle," Terrell said. "We have an old donor car that was given to us they can shoot the windshield of it. They've shot the windows out of it."
Each deputy was seated in the car and had to respond to the sound of gunfire as if he was the subject of an ambush -- all while being yelled at by several range officers.
One of the objects of the training was for deputies to learn to shoot through the vehicle's windshield or side window until they can get out and seek cover.
"Learn to get out, and even to crawl across and get out the passenger seat in case your door jams or if you're receiving fire from your driver's side, you need to get out the passenger side," Terrell said.
That involves rapid, strategic movements that sometimes are not as familiar to deputies.
"We've learned to shoot with the rifle left-handed and right-handed, and the pistol the same way, inside our vehicle and get out to get cover behind that vehicle and the different parts of the vehicle, behind the engine block and the wheels and the tires and the A post and B post and C post," Terrell said. "A lot of people don't know what that is, but people in public safety do. That's the things that we're really honing in on."
Another group of deputies participated in the training last week.
"It's something we're going to continue to do every year to try and be more proficient with our firearms, because that's the most deadly thing we carry is our firearms," Terrell said.
