Emergency Drill Will Involve Gunshots With Blank Rounds

(TNS) - Don’t be alarmed if you hear gunshots coming from inside the Henry County Courthouse Thursday evening.

It’s only a drill.

Henry County, Iowa Emergency Management director Walt Jackson and the Henry County Sheriff’s Department will host the drill at 4 p.m. Thursday, using blank rounds in real guns to simulate the sounds of a shooting incident.

“We want to give employees here more tools in their tool bags if something like this happened,” Jackson said.

While Jackson is planning a full scale, Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate style training session next year that will involve a gunman on the loose, Thursday’s drill will be strictly about identifying gunfire.

“Firing a gun in the woods and firing a gun inside a building — the acoustics are totally different. We want the employees to hear what it sounds like,” Jackson said.

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