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More than 200 participate in Campbell shooting drill

Campbell University held a mass casualty drill simulating a campus shooting on Saturday, preparing students and first responders for a possible tragedy.

Posted Updated

By
Adam Owens
, WRAL anchor/reporter
BUIES CREEK, N.C. — Campbell University held a mass casualty drill simulating a campus shooting on Saturday, preparing students and first responders for a possible tragedy.

In the drill, 61 people were hurt — more than 40 of them were shot.

“All these injured people are laying there without care, potentially bleeding to death,” faculty member Pete Fenn said.

Students worked alongside professional fire responders in the area to get these patients to a simulated hospital.

“Providing students that feel for the scenario makes them better prepared to think on their feet when they get out there as practitioners,” Fenn said.

This is the fifth year of the mass casualty drills at Campbell.

This year was the largest, with 200 people involved.

It was led by the physician assistant practice program in the university’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

Deanna Reichert was a student incident commander on Saturday’s drill.

She has helped plan the simulated school shooting since late last year.

“While you are planning it, you are watching it play out,” Reichert, mentioning the mass shooting at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in April.

“It was emotional just trying to put it together,” she said.

The drill did what it was supposed to do – teach students and first responders to react to something they hope to never see.

“We have to turn and face it,” Fenn said. “It is a public health crisis, I believe. And training our students to do this as practitioners, we are doing a service both to them and the community.”

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