By ERICA ESTEP
6 News Reporter
SEVIERVILLE (WATE) - The Colorado theater shooting hit close to home for a group of Sevierville Police Department SWAT team members.
Six members of the team had no idea that at the same time they were in New Mexico learning how to respond to a mass shooting, the tragedy was unfolding in Aurora.
They even learned tactics to enter booby trapped homes, and deal with unknown explosives, mirroring what officers in Colorado were dealing with.
On Wednesday, we found Sevierville's 14-member SWAT team training on the firearms range. They were running a stress course where they get their hearts beating with short, quick runs before quickly shooting at several targets.
Firearms training is nothing new for this team, but this time it's anything but routine for some of them.
"It doesn't really hit home until you've seen it live in front of you," said Sgt. Eric Ramsey, of the homeland security explosives training he and other team members just finished in New Mexico.
There they fine tuned their skills and learned some new ones from some of the best SWAT instructors in the country.
A lot of emphasis was put on responding to explosives and public shootings. "It was very intense," recalled Sevierville Detective Kevin Bush. "We blew up a car, pipe bombs, suitcase bomb, suicide bomb, the jackets that they're going to wear."
Right after the adrenaline pumping exercises, they learned of the Colorado shooting. Bush said he was stunned at the news. "I don't know if ironic was the word, or if for some reason we were put there, but now we are prepared."
The team leaders are bringing new skills back home to share with their fellow officers.
"Our team is always training on how to make entries and how to take over a residence, but the training in New Mexico helped us to identify other hazards and devices that may be in a house, that we may not have been prepared for prior to New Mexico," Ramsey added.
SWAT team members from Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and the Sevier County Sheriff's Office also took part in the Homeland Security Training.
"What happened out in Colorado is basically what we were being trained for," Bush said. "God forbid something happens and we have to overtake a theater, we've learned tactics."
Bush added that training alongside the other Sevier County law enforcement agencies helped them develop a stronger bond, making them even better prepared to work together if they ever face the worst case scenario.
The cost for the training was about $5,000 per officer, paid for with a federal grant through the Department of Homeland Security.
On Wednesday, we found Sevierville's 14-member SWAT team training on the firearms range.
