Around 6 p.m. Thursday, shots rang out dully from inside the Job Corps gym. Students flooded out from the emergency exits, scrambling around each other. A siren went off and the loudspeakers announced that an active shooter was on campus. This was the second such annual exercise that Job Corps has conducted, providing an opportunity for a number of different agencies to be put through the wringer with little information, under the worst of circumstances. The Moses Lake Police Department, Grant County Sheriff’s Office, Washington State Patrol, private ambulance service American Medical Response, Grant County Fire District No. 5 and Multi Agency Communications Center all took part in the exercise.
“Everyone can recall participating in school fire drills while growing up,” said Grant County Sheriff’s spokesperson Kyle Foreman.