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Police, hospital staff rehearse for armed crisis in Paramus
OCTOBER 19, 2014, 7:04 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014, 7:10 PM
BY STEFANIE DAZIO
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Begin scenario: A gunman takes a woman hostage at a local hospital and shoots aimlessly toward patients and their nurses on the third floor.
A security officer yells down the hallway, “Run and hide, we have a man with a gun.” Those who aren’t bedridden — or haven’t already been shot — scatter. Others lock their doors or draw the curtains around their beds. They hold their breath as the gunman comes closer.
A team of police officers advances, clearing corners and rooms until they find the gunman and his hostage. They train their weapons on him.
End scenario.
There wasn’t really an active shooter at The Valley Hospital’s Robert and Audrey Luckow Pavilion in Paramus on Sunday afternoon. But hospital staff, volunteers and local and county law enforcement agencies practiced this drill and several others as if there had been.
“One of these drills came to fruition,” Paramus Mayor Richard LaBarbiera said. “Preparedness, you can’t say enough about it.”
Nearly a year ago, police responded to the county’s first ongoing shooting incident, which happened at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus. The gunman fired randomly and later killed himself in the mall.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/police-hospital-staff-rehearse-for-armed-crisis-in-paramus-1.1112762#sthash.jByykonW.dpuf
