Colorado Police Hold Active Shooter Exercise in Mall

Colorado police held an active shooter exercise at a shopping mall in Broomfield.

According to CBS, law enforcement officers descended on Flatiron Crossing Shopping Center in full tactical gear. The exercise began on Sunday evening.

“We know that we have intruders that are armed that are in the mall in the food court,” said Dave Joly, spokesman for the regional office of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, FBI. “And we have people who are in there — again this is an exercise — but we have people who are injured, people who have been shot, and we have law enforcement responding to that as well.”

As CBS reports, the exercise tests the officers’ ability to juggle multiple facets of a crisis, including multiple shooters, hostages and explosive devices. The drill included the participation of the FBI, the Broomfield Police Department and North Metro Fire Rescue.

“This is a very real world exercise. It’s very fluid. We don’t really know how the scenario is going to play out that will change as our command staff make decisions reacting to this particular incident,” Joly explained.

The general public was not notified that the exercise would be taking place.

“We knew this would be the best time to host something like this with our partners. And, yeah, see how this all plays out. And try to be as real-life as possible,” said Heather Drake, Flatiron Crossing spokesperson.

Monitors watching the exercise will grade each agency on their performance.