Colorado nurse sues after being a 'hostage' in armed gunman drill

[Mick-Boy]

Communication... Needs some work in this case.

http://news.yahoo.com/colorado-nurse-sues-being-hostage-armed-gunman-drill-235157402.html

http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/2014/07/29/woman-sues-after-active-shooter-training-exercise/13346193/


A woman from Carbondale claims she suffered emotional and mental distress during an active shooter training exercise she claims she didn't know she was a part of.

Michelle Meeker is suing the Carbondale police chief and an officer. Her employer, the Heritage Park Care Center, where the exercise occurred October 13, 2013, is also listed in the complaint.

[theGinsue]

Reading this story I'm torn 50/50 on this. Sounds like she was not properly notified in advance of the drill and after being taken "hostage" the officer identified himself - but she was unsure of whether to believe him.

I can see, if this information is legit, how she could be terrified. In every exercise of this nature I was involved in while active duty, everyone was pre-informed and we'd usually present a scendario card to the palyers of critical "hostage" type situations with the word "Exercise" repeated all around the border of the scenario card. The display of weapons always preceeded by the statement "In case you are asked to identify the weapon I'm using..."

But, at some point this woman needed to catch on that this wasn't real and was only a drill. She sounds like one of those people who would totally freak out if she *heard* another shopper in a store she was visiting possessed a firearm.

[Bailey Guns]

I've done these before. In the exercises I've done you couldn't possibly be involved and not know it wasn't real. With all the briefings and planning that went on, everyone gathered at the scene beforehand...it would be hard to miss the "exercise" part. But maybe they did it a little differently and my perspective is from the police side.

I can see this one going either way from the limited info in the stories.

[Zundfolge]

Well after the story about the Doctor in PA violating hospital policy and packing anyway and thus being able to stop a mental patient from becoming a mass murderer it seems to me that if police departments are going to have these drills they better make damn sure that everyone knows they're going down.

[TFOGGER]

Sounds like everyone was on board, except they forgot to tell the employees at the facility. She'll probably settle out of court for a couple million. Someone is damned lucky that one of the employees didn't take more aggressive action, you know, like throwing a stapler at the "assailants" or something...

[Aloha_Shooter]

I have no idea what the true story is. I will just note for everyone jumping to conclusions about faulty communications that I have had previous experience with exercises or operations where EVERYONE was told REPEATEDLY what was going on and some people were STILL clueless at H hour or even H+1. She may have a valid complaint; she may also have been more interested in her Facebook page and not paid attention when she was told and told again.

[Zundfolge]

...I have had previous experience with exercises or operations where EVERYONE was told REPEATEDLY what was going on and some people were STILL clueless at H hour or even H+1. She may have a valid complaint; she may also have been more interested in her Facebook page and not paid attention when she was told and told again.

I guess the good thing is that the chances that a person that is so oblivious that they ignored all the communications telling them of the exercise are also likely to be "condition white people" that don't carry a gun either.

[Geology Rocks]

Why didn't she just pee on him?

[Mtn.man]

I'm suing because of this story.

[10mm-man]

Sounds like everyone was on board, except they forgot to tell the employees at the facility. She'll probably settle out of court for a couple million. Someone is damned lucky that one of the employees didn't take more aggressive action, you know, like throwing a stapler at the "assailants" or something...

Or vomit, or pee! Can imagine the horror!!!

[davsel]

Well, that's one side of the story.

[centrarchidae]

You know, if we didn't have militarized police having militarized training and creating joinder with their militarized weapons, we wouldn't have this issue.

In all seriousness, someone screwed up. I'm not going to even try and guess who it was from the press coverage.

[TheGrey]

I have to lean toward the "BS" side- according to the news story, that was not the first safety drill they'd rn at the center; they had safety consultants there, and I've been participated in many exercises for both police academy training, and drills such as hostage-on-a-bus and school-shooter scenarios. There's no way that she didn't know- you've got the people in charge of the actual training, the person in charge of the safety consultants, Heritage center itself (although they're being obtuse and claiming that it 'wasn't their job to notify their employees') and plenty of people milling around before the exercise begins. The guns the police use in this situation are plastic-looking and usually are an obnoxious color.
I find it really hard to believe that she didn't have some sort of idea what was going on. If she truly didn't, I'm thinking that it's a good thing that someone that oblivious isn't caring for the elderly.

I miss being a part of those drills. They were such fun!

[rondog]

Greedy twat just smells an easy paycheck. A fuckin' cheeseburger could tell the difference between a real situation and a training exercise.