SWAT simulates downtown disaster

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A SWAT team swarmed a downtown Indianapolis office Thursday morning.

There was no actual emergency, but it looked and sounded like one.

Between gunshots, police wielding rifles and handguns, and warnings blaring over a public address system, workers at the Indiana State Health Department saw, heard, and participated in a drill that mimicked a real crisis.

They called it an active shooter scenario.

In other words: what to do if someone comes in and starts shooting up the place.

It's not a pleasant thought, but Health Department leaders wanted workers to think about it and what they should do if it ever happens.

Indiana State Police and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers played roles, too. They ran into the building, wielding weapons loaded with blanks. Eventually, they found and "took down" the mock shooter.

The Health Department does these kinds of drills occasionally. It's been a couple of years since the last active shooter drill, but that's just one of several pseudo-emergencies workers have been exposed to

"We have multiple different types of drills that we do – tornado, to suspicious package, to bioterrorism," said Sean Keefer, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Health. "It's to alert employees that we hope things never do happen, of course, but they are going to be prepared and empowered to know what exactly they should do. And we do them frequently enough that they don't have to second-guess, and they will have an instinct in knowing what to do in these situations."

Early word is that all went well, but Health Department leaders met with police to talk about specifics.

As for any real fear from the drill, the IDHS said employees got a lot of warning about this, so they should not have been surprised.