Realistic ‘active shooter’ drill held at Riley Avenue tests school, emergency response to horrifying scenario

“I was in my office, just like any regular school morning,” Riley Avenue Elementary School principal David Enos recalled. “I heard a commotion in the hallway and then I heard a pop — kind of like a firecracker,” he said.

“I didn’t like what I heard, so I immediately locked the building down and notified police,” Enos said.

This is the stuff of nightmares for educators and school administrators: an active shooter in the building, firing at teachers, staff and students.

“It was very real for me,” Riverhead school district assistant superintendent David Wicks said. Wicks, former Riverhead High School principal, was on hand as an observer and watched the shooter enter the building and observed the mayhem he unleashed inside.

“I got chills and found myself getting emotional,” Wicks said. “It felt very real.”

Enos agreed. “You drill, you drill, you drill, but this was different. It was very realistic and it was scary,” Enos said.

“The real sobering thing is how much time can elapse before someone can get here,” Wicks said. It was only a matter of minutes before police arrived, but time moves in slow-motion in a situation like that, he said.

Faculty and staff know the lockdown procedure inside and out. “Everybody’s practiced it. We practice multiple times each year,” Enos said.

The lockdown went as it should, Wicks said. “Our current lockdown procedures and practices are very good,” he said. “It made me feel really good. But school administrators always need to look at what can be done differently to better protect the students, teachers and staff, Wicks said.

“As soon as there was a lockdown called, we all know to get in a corner and be really quiet ,” said Sam Dunn, a Riverhead High School junior who was one of the 70 or so high school students who volunteered for the drill.

Dunn was inside a classroom when Enos announced the lockdown. She heard shouting in the hallway and the sound of gunfire. It’s scary being huddled in a corner of a classroom with that going on in the hall— even in a drill, she said.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. The shooter entered her classroom and she heard shots fired. But, as trained, she kept her head down and eyes closed. She didn’t know if anyone was hit. “It’s nerve-racking. You’re taught to go in a corner and stay there. But being all in a corner he could shoot you real easily.”

Riverhead High School senior ‘Aleki Lui was part of a contingent in the hallway that was tasked with trying to startle the police strategic intervention team. “We were asked to run and rush the assault team to startle them so they have to make the decision whether to shoot at us,” Lui said. “We could see the gunman and hear the shots being fired. It was interesting,” Lui said.

Police, special ops forces, EMTs, and volunteer firefighters descended on Riley Avenue Elementary School shortly after 9 a.m. this morning in response to the mass casualty incident.

Eight emergency medical services departments, Riverhead Town Police, Suffolk County Police, Suffolk County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services, Riverhead and Jamesport fire departments and Suffolk County Police aviation took part in the drill, the first of its kind in eastern Suffolk.

At the direction of police, students, teachers and staff, arms over their heads, filed quickly out of the building’s front entrance and scurried away to a safe zone, near the Suffolk emergency services command post.

The lone gunman was armed with a paintball gun to simulate an assault rifle. After firing shots that injured 15 people and killed two, he turned his gun on himself, according to drill organizer Joseph Oliver.

Once the scene was cleared by police — once the shooter was “neutralized” EMS workers were given the OK to enter the building and treat victims.

“There’s always room for improvement,” Oliver said. “It took longer than I would like, about seven minutes after we were cleared, for EMTs to enter the building.”

“Triage went very well,” Oliver said. “Overall the whole drill went well.”

Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller was on hand to observe the operation and said afterward he was pleased with the outcome.

“I’d like to commend Joseph Oliver for spearheading this effort. It was very worthwhile, from a learning perspective,” Hegermiller said. “The only way to really be prepared for a tragedy like this is to practice for it.”