Police officers, firefighters, FBI agents and SWAT team members filled Rieber courtyard early Tuesday morning as they attempted to control a mock campus shooting.
Amid the screams of some of the victims and the giggles of others who tried to stay in character, firefighters and emergency officials tried to make sense of the situation.
The scene was part of a massive training exercise that included more than 300 members of the Los Angeles Police Department and fire department, university police, FBI and members of the city’s SWAT team.
While LAPD, LAFD and other agencies conduct their own regular exercises, it was the first such large collaboration on a university campus.
“Drills have gotten better, efforts (three years ago) weren’t as good as now, it’s all about relationships,” said Carlos Calvillo, Captain II of the LAFD.
More than 100 students volunteered playing the role of injured students. Students exited Rieber Hall in small groups, some clutching one another for support, screaming and moaning about their injuries. Most had fake blood splattered across them and had to act accordingly, as if they had real injuries.
Firefighters then separated the students according to the severity of their injuries, learning the details of the scenario only as it unfolded so the exercise was as realistic as possible.
While most officials did not know the specific reason as to why UCLA’s campus had been selected as a training ground, Chancellor Gene Block said the training exercise was a good opportunity for the large university.
“This is a major public university in Southern California,” Block said. “This is an ideal location. It’s a model, actually. Our own police are well-prepared."
“Hopefully this will serve as a model for other large universities.”
UCLA Assistant Police Chief Jeff Young said the process came as a result of the good relationship between the agencies.
“It was a natural partnership that we developed. … It just worked out that way,” said Young. “No one agency can do it all.”
For other students, the opportunity was a great one for the agencies to become familiar with the university’s campus as a whole.
“If it makes the FBI (and other agencies) more familiar with our school, then it’s awesome,” said Victoria Huber, a fourth-year geography student.
She added that as a university, the campus faces different scenarios than those that may occur in other locations.
“We’re a very weird, isolated island, so there would be different pressures that would happen here,” Huber said, referencing past events such as the campus shooting that occurred at Virginia Tech in 2007.
The exercise on Tuesday took place on the first day of the two-day exercise, with the second day consisting of a crime scene investigation.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said that the exercise allowed the city and its different agencies to prepare for an event that, hopefully, would never occur.
“All of us watched in horror as we saw the carnage, the unacceptable violence perpetrated by one person against his fellow students at Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University."
“I can tell you that most of us who came to this campus, or any campus, never thought that the day would come that we would have to prepare for an incident of this kind,” Villaraigosa said.
With reports by Sarah Jo, Bruin senior staff