Combined response: Ontario Middle School hosts rescue task force training

ONTARIO — The lessons of Columbine echoed down the hallways of Ontario Middle School on Tuesday afternoon.

Members of the Ontario Police Department, Richland County Sheriff’s Office and the Springfield Township Fire Department were listening.

One of the biggest lessons from the tragedy is that law enforcement and emergency medical responders must work closely together to save lives during situations like the April 20, 1999 high school shooting in Littleton, Colo., that left 15 dead, including the two students responsible for the attack.

The three local law enforcement officers and one firefighter/paramedic were part of a national, three-day Rescue Task Force Instructor course in Ontario that began on Monday and concludes on Wednesday, taught by the National Tactical Officers Association.

The 17-member class has participants from Ohio, Colorado, Wisconsin, New York, Indiana, Florida, Missouri and Maryland.

It includes Ontario police Sgt. Casey Bly, RCSO Sgt. Amber Alfrey, Ontario police officer Rod Roose and Springfield Township firefighter/paramedic Mike Wilson.

(Photos taken Tuesday at Ontario Middle School during the second day of a three-day Rescue Task Force Instructor course. The story continues below the photos.)

“The tragedy that occurred at Columbine High School was certainly a paradigm shifting event for law enforcement,” said NTOA instructor Jim Etzin.

Etzin is a former U.S. Navy medic assigned to the Marine Corps during combat operations in Operation Desert Storm, working for fire departments and tactical response teams after leaving the military.

Prior to Columbine, Etzin said, the expectation was for police patrol officers to establish a perimeter around a live shooting event and then wait for tactical teams, such as a SWAT unit, to enter the scene.

Only after the scene was safe did patrol officers and medical personnel move in to assist the wounded and secure the scene.

“Unfortunately, many of these tragedies, they’re over in minutes, therefore necessitating patrol officers and the firefighters EMS providers who work the streets of any given community day-in and day-out to respond in manners they haven’t in the past,” Etzin said.

That changed response was seen in Nashville in 2023 when patrol officers arriving on the scene of a school shooting entered immediately and killed an armed suspect, who prior to their arrival, had already murdered three young children and three adults.

Officers shot and killed the suspect four minutes after arriving at Covenant School.

“They have to take immediate action to stop the killing,” Etzin said.

He was joined by fellow instructor Chris Fishel, a Marine Corps veteran from the Persian Gulf war and a law enforcement officer who graduated from the FBI National Academy.

“Stopping the killing is law enforcement’s responsibility and that always comes first,” Etzin said. “That would be followed by fire departments and emergency medical services going into that environment and stopping the dying by treating the victims as quickly as they can.

“One of the things about this class is we teach the participants how to achieve that as simultaneously as possible,” he said.

The course teaches law enforcement officers to work in coordinated ways with EMS personnel, who Etzin said are taught to increase their “risk appetite.”

“Obviously, we don’t want to jeopardize firefighters and EMS providers, but we do hope to increase what we refer to as their ‘risk appetite,’” he said.

He said firefighters are trained and willing to enter burning buildings to save lives and conduct tactical rescue situations when lives are in danger.

“Frefighters are willing to assume certain degrees of risk. They’re willing to risk a lot to save a lot and risk a little to save little. So there’s always a risk-benefit analysis,” Etzin said.

During one of the hands-on training scenarios on Tuesday afternoon, volunteers portrayed wounded people in a classroom, along with a suspect who had committed suicide after shooting others.

A team of patrol officers came down the hall and secured the classroom, passing up a wounded victim in the hallway until they had located the deceased suspect.

They then called for another team of law enforcement officers and medics to the hallway and classroom room before continuing down the hall to search for additional suspects.

The training provides officers and paramedics, dressed in tactical vests and helmets, to work together in “warm zones,” beginning the rapid treatment of wounded even before the entire building is secure.

Richland County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Amber Alfrey (left) and Springfield Township firefighter/paramedic Mike Wilson(with helmet) listen as Ontario police officer Rod Roose speaks during a training exercise Tuesday at Ontario Middle School. Credit: Carl Hunnell Credit: Carl Hunnell

The training made sense to Roose, a 13-year OPD veteran and a member of the Richland County ASORT team. He assisted in teaching the patrol officers and firefighters as they moved through the training scenario on Tuesday.

“We work together to get in here and effectively practice these techniques. It allows us to lower the time frame of injured people in need of medical care,” he said.

“We can come in, secure these hallways and get (victims) out of here faster,” said Roose, who was honored in 2023 for saving the life of a choking toddler in Ontario.

It also resonated with Wilson, who has been with the Springfield Township Fire Department for 20 years.

“I don’t think you can put a monetary value on this training. It’s just extremely valuable,” he said. “That’s probably the best way to say it.

“It’s obvious the world we life in is not a peaceful place. As a fire department and EMS and law enforcement, we’re tasked with the safety of our community,” Wilson said.

“This is just one tool that will help us make people safe. We will have to deal with this if it comes up. But instead of just having to deal with it, we are now training and preparing so that if and when something does happen, we’re as prepared as we can be,” he said.

Completing the “train-the-trainer” course will also mean Roose, Wilson, Alfrey and Bly are certified to teach the subject matter to others within their departments.

“Not only are we teaching them the concepts and the tactics and the strategies, but we’re also providing them with some information on adult learning and how they can translate what they’ve learned to their peers to try and provide for a more efficient response,” Etzin said.

“Heaven forbid an incident like the ones we’re discussing occurs within their community. We often say we all hope for the best, but we’re expected by those we serve to prepare for the worst,” he said.

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