Kitsap law enforcement participates in active shooter training

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Kitsap County deputies rushed into a classroom at Silverdale’s Ridgetop Middle School to neutralize an active shooter in a mock training. The exercise, using a role-playing actor to simulate an armed assailant, is designed to prepare law enforcement if such an incident actually happens.

Sheriff’s deputies and officers from Poulsbo and Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe police departments participated in the training, put on by the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office.

“Active shooters are extremely violent. They will kill until they are stopped. We need to act immediately and efficiently to save as many people as possible,” said Kitsap County deputy Breanna Emery, a member of the patrol division and one of the instructors at the training.

Emery outlined the key points police officers are to take away from the session.

“The first priority for us is stop the shooter, either by taking them into custody, or if we have to, by use of lethal force. Immediately after that, our priority is to stop as much dying as possible; that means getting people medical care as quickly as possible,” she said.

Skills police learned over the two-day event in July include how to enter the room of the shooter and navigate through a room full of children, if the incident happens in a school, or adults, if the event happens at a workplace.

Officers received classroom instruction and acted out real-life scenarios. During the mock exercises, officers were decked out in full uniform and armed with guns loaded with special BB-type pellets that leave a blue mark where they hit.

In one scenario, a lone officer responds to a routine 911 call of a disturbance. However, when the officer arrives, an assailant in a room begins to fire shots at people inside. The officer must decide the best way to enter the room, maneuver around citizens, and take action against the shooter.

In another situation, officers from several police agencies respond to a report of gunfire at a school. Officers gather in the hallway outside a classroom where shots had previously been heard, but now the gunfire has stopped. The dilemma – is there still an active threat requiring immediate entry, or is it best to surround the area before taking action?

Another exercise placed officers outside the building where an active shooter incident is taking place. As they are about to enter, an officer notices the doorway appears to be booby-trapped with an explosive device. The group must determine an alternate way to quickly get to the shooter.

During the training, officers also discussed a key question that arises when several police departments arrive at the scene – which officer is to take overall charge of the situation and determine the next steps?

Changing strategy

The strategy police utilize in active shooter incidents has changed over the years, impacting how this training was conducted, the deputy said.

During the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, the police surrounded the area of the shooting and waited for the SWAT team to arrive. “Law enforcement’s response to wait resulted in numerous deaths that possibly could have been prevented if they had gone in,” Emery said.

Today’s approach is to take immediate action to deal with the threat. For example, the first officer on the scene is taught to immediately enter the shooting zone and attempt to neutralize the shooter, Emery explained.

The last time a full-scale, multi-agency active shooter training took place in the county was approximately 2018, according to officials.

The timing is right to repeat the instruction, as about one-half of the deputies have been with KCSO for less than five years and many have not gone through this training, Emery said.

The ALERRT Center at Texas State University, an organization that studies active shooter incidents and is associated with the FBI, helped fund the training. ALERTT prepared Emery and other local law enforcement to be instructors. The group also provided the equipment and simulated rounds for the mock exercises.

Fortunately, Kitsap County has not been the site of a deadly mass shooting. The last active shooter incident happened in 2017 in Eagle Harbor off Bainbridge Island, according to the sheriff’s office. An individual on a sailboat was said to be shooting a rifle towards shoreline homes. Residents were directed to shelter in place. Following a four-hour standoff, the individual shot at officers, who returned fire and killed the shooter. No civilians or law enforcement were injured.

While the county has escaped the trauma of fatalities from an active shooter, it is important that local law enforcement is ready, Emery said.

“It only takes one. We want to be as prepared as possible. The purpose of the training is multifaceted. One, we want anyone who is thinking about doing it here to know we are prepared. Hopefully, that will deter them. Two, if it does happen, we need to make sure that we respond appropriately and save as many lives as possible,” the deputy said.

Emery hopes the training lays the foundation for additional instruction. She would like to see future trainings focus on other potential active shooter locations such as a shopping center and open public spaces like a park.