Lt. Gerrells attends Active Shooter Training in Demorest

Lt. Mark Gerrells II, who serves as the Public Information Officer and Training Officer with the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office, recently attended active shooter training that dealt with not only the shooter but the victims. “Recently, the City of Demorest hosted a class through ALERRT. They are on the cutting edge of active shooter responses. This particular course revolved around cooperation, utilizing our resources with our fire departments and our EMS personnel. The objective of this class was not only to stop the killing going on in an active shooter event but it led further down the road. So, now we have to start treating the patients that we have, we have to stop the dying, and we have to make sure that we get them out there safely to a higher level of care. So, a very great class, learned a lot from it, and I’m looking forward to incorporating that in our training here.” The Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training or ALERRT course is for the first responders to active shooter incidents. It began in response to America’s active shooter trend, beginning with the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.