Md. First Responders Hold Active Shooter Drill and Mock Media Conference

Aug. 18—Aberdeen Proving Ground's top general praised employees and first responders at the Harford County Army post for their response to a simulated active shooter exercise held Thursday at the Edgewood Area of APG.

"Our procedures to respond are incredible," Maj. Gen. Randy S. Taylor, the senior commander of APG, said following a mock press conference Thursday afternoon off-post at The Ground Floor in Havre de Grace. "Our first responders on the police side and other [units] are ready and are highly capable."

The exercise involved a combined police and fire/EMS response to an Edgewood Area worker who had shot several fellow employees and stole a vial of a chemical agent.

Aberdeen Proving Ground, which is celebrating the centennial of its founding in 1917, has been one of the Army's primary sites for testing weapons, vehicles, military technology, equipment for soldiers and defense against an array of threats such as chemical, biological and, in recent years, cyber attacks.

Workers at the Edgwood Area, or APG South, conduct medical and chemical research as they prepare responses to chemical incidents during war and peace time, according to Taylor, who comands the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command and has been at APG since April.

"That's really where our nation's best experts and best minds are working to safeguard us," he said.

The Ground Floor is a business incubator operated within the Harford County Office of Economic Development's headquarters at Swan Creek Center on Route 40 in Havre de Grace.

"Utilizing The GroundFloor space tests a component of our emergency operations communication plan, which includes an option to host media off installation in conjunction with outside agencies," Heather Roelker, public affairs specialist with the Army garrison at APG, explained via email. "This is a great example of the continued partnership between APG and Harford County."

Aberdeen Proving Ground, which is Harford County's largest employer, has a military and civilian workforce that ranges from 18,000 to about 20,000 each day, according to Taylor. The number of people associated with the post increases to about 27,000 when including the families of APG personnel and retirees, the general noted.

Taylor said officials conduct large-scale exercises, such as what happened Thursday, about once a year, and smaller exercises throughout the year to test the readiness of the workforce.

"They performed great," he said. "We still learned some lessons and that's why we do this."

He said Edgewood Area employees were notified at the start of the active shooter exercise.

"We went through our procedures of accounting for everybody and getting them to shelter in place and lock down their facilities," Taylor said.

Roelker, the public affairs representative, said APG officials are not concerned about any threats to the post from terrorism, based on the exercise Thursday.

"This exercise tested the capabilities of our emergency responders, and they did very well," she said. "We have no concerns whatsoever about our safety at Aberdeen Proving Ground."

Taylor was flanked by fellow Army commanders and APG police, EMS and emergency management officials during the mock press conference. Civilian staffers, many who work in various public affairs offices, portrayed reporters.

The general explained, as if he was giving a real press briefing, that the shooting was reported around 9:50 a.m. Thursday. The suspect was a contract employee who worked at the Army's Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, and the shooting happened as he and fellow employees were conducting an inventory of chemical agents stored at the MRICD for study.

Three people died during the incident, including the shooter, who officials believe took his own life. Two more people were wounded.

The vial containing the chemical agent was recovered and secured, Taylor said.

"We are going to do everything we can to make sure those involved have the assistance they need to get through this tough time," he said.

The response to the shooting involved police officers wearing tactical gear, with a canine unit in tow, responding to a MRICD office building on the sprawling Edgewood Area campus. The officers could be seen carrying brightly-colored mock firearms.

Other people portrayed shooting victims and the shooting suspect. Victims could be seen lying on the ground, including one man holding his bandaged and bloody abdomen, as others tended to them.

One woman portrayed a person panicked over the shooting and looking for a colleague. She had to be escorted from the building by police officers.

Those involved later gathered at an intersection near a Maryland Army National Guard aviation facility on the post for a briefing from Police Chief Joel Holdford.

A handful of people from Army facilities around the country were on hand to observe the exercise.

SFC Daniel Loughry, a representative of the Washington CID Battalion, part of the Criminal Investigation Command serving Washington, D.C. and the surrounding area, was one of those observers.

He is assigned to Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Virginia. Loughry said his unit will be part of an upcoming "multi-agency response training scenario."

"We're here to observe the [APG] training operations and partner with them," Loughry said.