GAINESVILLE - Police activity at the Lanier Park campus of Northeast Georgia Medical Center Friday morning might have looked like the real thing, but authorities were conducting their first training exercise of the year.
Gainesville Police Department spokesman Joe Britte said the scenario involved a hostage situation.
"We responded to a shooting in progress," said Britte of the training exercise. "[We did everything from] setting up a staging area and getting all forces together to see how we would basically react in a situation such as that."
Britte said Gainesville and Hall County authorities and the Georgia State Patrol participated and worked with security officers from the Medical Center.
The exercise began just after 8:00 a.m. and concluded around 9:30, according to Britte.
The activity at the campus did spark some concern from citizens who saw the police presence. Britte said had the situation been real, the media would have been informed, so they could pass along the information to the public.
"We would keep our citizens abreast of what's going on," he said.
And Britte said the exercise proved area law enforcement is ready to handle a serious hostage situation, should one occur.
"The result was excellent," he said. "All agencies pulled together and critiqued one another and got some good feedback. It was a great effort by all agencies...an awesome display."
Monday
May 6th, 2024
9:59PM
