Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2007
by Patricia M. Murret | Staff Writer
Small explosions accompanied by the ringing of car alarms came from the recently vacated Broadstone Apartments in Gaithersburg on Thursday as police engaged in small explosives training to prepare for hostage-rescue, barricade and school shooting situations.
‘‘The venue gave us a valuable training opportunity that we don’t often have,” said city Chief of Police John A. King. ‘‘Usually when we do training like that it’s in a single-family house that’s about to be condemned, and a large apartment complex like that gives us the opportunity to simulate many different type venues.”
Broadstone, a series of five-story apartment buildings at the corner of Route 355 and West Deer Park Road, was emptied of 350 families on Nov. 15 to make way for future redevelopment.
The buildings, slated for demolition in the spring, gave police a setting similar to a college campus.
Forced Entry Tactical Training of Las Vegas, an organization King called ‘‘some of the most skilled police and military specialists in explosive breaching” taught the course in classified tactics. Participants included about 30 SWAT specialists from police departments in Gaithersburg, Montgomery and Baltimore counties and Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax counties in Virginia , as well as SWAT team members from the Frederick County Sheriff’s Department and Maryland State Police.
‘‘It is not if, but when there will be a school incident like those that have occurred in Nickel Mines, Pa., Bailey, Colo., or Beslan, Russia,” King wrote in a memo about the training to Gaithersburg’s Mayor and City Council on Nov. 14. ‘‘And we will need officers and tactical teams from the surrounding jurisdictions to assist in the resolution.”
Three days of classroom learning included precise math formulas to calculate the smallest amount of explosives needed to breach a structure to gain entry, King said. Hands-on practice at Broadstone followed.
On Thursday, SWAT specialists clad in black, ballistics helmets, bulletproof vests and gas masks circled the parking lot in a 15,000-pound olive green armored vehicle, then approached a building from varying directions.
Moments later, a fiery flash appeared through a window accompanied by a bang. The simulation, which set off the alarms of about 15 police squad cars, was repeated in various forms throughout the week, police said.
Training with officers from other jurisdictions could prove an advantage in a crisis, said Gaithersburg Sgt. Trey Best.
‘‘Just look at national events,” King said. ‘‘What everybody says is ‘We never thought it could happen here,’ and so we’re preparing.”
