Columbine.

Virginia Tech.

Tree of Life Synagogue.

These are just three of the many mass shootings that have taken place in the United States over the last 25 years.

This week, a dozen Carbon County law enforcement officers, as well as three state agencies are learning how to stop the kill, stop the dying and secure the scene in Active Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT), coordinated by the Carbon County Sheriff and the FBI at the Emergency Operations Training Center in Nesquehoning.

On Tuesday, a handful of community members and sheriff’s deputies served as role play volunteers to simulate real-life active shooter situations.

“Our goal here is to train as many chiefs, myself and other local people to be instructors so that we are able to train all our local law enforcement agencies,” said Sheriff Dan Zeigler. “It becomes very realistic to know that if something happens in any of our areas, a lot of us are showing up. So what this training allows is us to have a common verbiage and language, common tactics and we’re all able to support each other in keeping all the residents of Carbon County safe.

“It’s no secret. When you turn the news on, you see this more and more. We train and hopefully never have to use this; but we will be very well prepared to respond anywhere in the county or a neighboring county. This just doesn’t have to happen in the school. This could happen in a place of worship, a Walmart or a convenience store. We are trained and prepared for all those scenarios.”

Zeigler added that this training will allow area law enforcement to understand and better work together in active shooting situations if it ever happens in Carbon County.

Participants in the first week of training, who will then become the trainers for next week’s larger scale ALERRT training, include police chiefs and officers from Jim Thorpe, Nesquehoning, Lansford, Palmerton, Weatherly, Lehighton, Franklin Township, the sheriff’s office, and Pennsylvania and Delaware State Police.

Officers did a combination of classroom work, as well as hands-on scenarios, where ALERRT instructors set up a scene and asked responders to respond and make split second decisions to take down a shooter, secure the scene and help anyone who is injured.

In Tuesday afternoon’s session, with the help of community volunteers, trainers were able to set up larger scenarios, including critically injured patients, to help provide officers with an opportunity to work in tactical teams to meet the goals of the program.

Once this is completed, the newly trained trainers will teach approximately 63 officers from various county agencies, and in the future, may hold citizen response courses on the topic.

Zeigler thanked the county for creating a training center that can serve various emergency response entities.

“I’m very thankful to the county and all of the partners who helped make this facility something that we’re able to use,” he said. “I would also like to thank all of my partner chiefs and everybody else that we work with. This is really a team effort. For the first time in decades, maybe ever, we are sharing resources and collaborating in a way that was never thought of before.”