The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office School Resource Officers continued active shooter training last night (April 25, 2023) at Lincolnton Middle School. First Sergeant Richard Calhoun conducted the third active shooter/solo response training event of the year for all school resource officers. Sgt. Calhoun said, “I added the training this school year to help ensure that the SRO’s are prepared to face, and quickly resolve, any potential threat that their respective school may encounter. The ultimate and primary goal of every SRO is to ensure the safety of every student and staff member at their school.”

Sgt. Calhoun and Deputy Thomas Laverde coordinated planning for these events. Their goals were to make every exercise as realistic as possible and last night’s event was held in an actual school. The training involved the use of live “simunition” rounds which are non-lethal rounds, role players, loud alarms, and other noises such as screams and the sound of live gun fire using blank rounds. Over the course of the three training exercises, SRO’s went through dozens of different scenarios that involved shoot and no shoot outcomes. Dozens of live “simunition” rounds were exchanged between the assailant and the SRO’s at each training event.