UNC shooter drill near perfect

Although officers were prepared to encounter fake gunmen with hostages and chemical weapons in Wednesday’s shooter-on-campus drill, they were flustered by a real student journalist with a recorder.

An officer held a gun to the back of senior Will Gorham and forced him to the ground as he walked along the boundaries of the site, assuming he was part of the drill.

Despite that one hiccup, UNC administrators called the drill a success that highlighted the importance of communication between every facet of campus.

The training session incorporated on-site responses from a number of agencies, the convening of an executive group of administrators and alert sirens and text messages to faculty, staff and students on campus.

Chancellor Holden Thorp said the next step would be fine-tuning the channels of communication between those groups during a crisis.

“Every time we do something like this, we learn something new about how we communicate,” Thorp said.

“As we unfortunately know from things that have happened here, these kinds of incidents are realistic possibilities, and even though we do everything we can to prevent them, we need to be prepared.”

The exercise began with an 8:45 a.m. call to the Department of Public Safety from an emergency call box at the Outdoor Education Center, which is about a 10-minute walk from the center of campus.

Responding officers found individuals who appeared — as part of the exercise — to be injured with gunshot wounds.

This began emergency notifications on campus, such as text messages to Alert Carolina subscribers and messages on campus sirens.

As the mock conflict evolved, the Chapel Hill hostage negotiation team and UNC’s Environment, Health and Safety department responded to new threats from the two gunmen.

Throughout the exercise, Gorham walked around the barricaded perimeter of the Outdoor Education Center, collecting sound for the radio program Carolina Connection. He was near an unblocked residential road at the outer perimeter of the drill when confronted.

“The response, I think, was appropriate,” said DPS Chief Jeff McCracken, adding that he had not yet talked to the officer or student.

McCracken said no charges would be made against Gorham, who was uninjured. But the senior journalism major said he was still unsure what his next action would be.

“I’m not going to say right now whether I’m going to file a complaint or anything,” Gorham said. “I don’t wanna speculate because I haven’t had time to think about.”

Thorp said he would take away two things from the exercises: balancing communication while still giving priority to the field operation, and deciding how to determine when it’s safe to tell people to stop sheltering.

Preparations for the simulation began six months ago. The drill was managed by EnviroSafe Consulting and Investigations Inc., which is conducting simulations and training at each of the 17 UNC-system schools.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.