Wake County deputies hold new active shooter drills

WAKE COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- Special training continued Wednesday for Wake County Sheriff deputies inside the Wake County Justice Center. Every deputy in the department learned new ways to respond to an active shooter situation. "It can happen anywhere. And it has" said Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker.

Earlier this year deputies trained inside a school. This time around it was inside the Wake County Justice Center, where on any given day there are hundreds of people inside, from judges and prosecutors to people on trial or in traffic court. "It's likely, you know, folks get upset about things that happened with the judicial matters, and it could happen."

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Baker wants his department prepared if it does happen as communities are still trying to process the deadly shooting inside a Buffalo grocery store and the fatal school shooting in Uvalde Texas.

According to Gun Violence Archive, there have been 530 mass shootings so far this year "We need to go ahead and sharpen our knives a little bit. So, we can be prepared for what could possibly happen here, in Wake County. And being prepared is half the battle," continued Baker

Preparation included deputies learning skills that will protect them, innocent bystanders, and other first responders who are on the scene of an active shooter situation.

Deputies also navigated the hallways of the Justice Center looking for places a bad guy could hide or where a scared office employee is tucked away out of sight of a shooter "What we're trying to do is get these officers moving to the location of the shooter, and they're looking for evidence along the way that would lead them to the shooter such as hearing the noise from a gun, or screams of blood, different things they may see that would help them indicate where the shooter may be in a building," explained Captain Brian Bowers.

Bowers is leading the training. It's a part of a series of exercises from the department. Every deputy will undergo the training to make sure there's no hesitation to respond if a student in the classroom needs them or a secretary inside an office building.

"We're training ours to respond. Regardless of the situation, you've got to go because the people in there don't have nothing to defend themselves with and that's one of the times where you put officer safety aside and you put your life on the line."