Augustana is participating in an active shooter drill and the college will be in a lockdown for 45 minutes.
Approximately 500 students are participating in the drill along with the RIPD, Rock Island Fire Department, ambulances from both side of the river and six hospitals.
Some shot and severely injured students are evacuated & awaiting medical assistance #AugieDrill2k16 pic.twitter.com/Dnff4YhK3m
— RYAN JENKINS (@The_RyanJenkins) April 26, 2016
Augustana Observer reporters are on the scene. Student volunteers are posing as victims who have been shot and severely injured waiting for ambulances to arrive. Students who were not injured have been sent to Carver. Rock Island Police, Fire Department, and Moline ambulance are on the scene.
The scene is secure and medics are being called in. Ambulances are transporting the injured to the hospital. MetroLINK is transporting the non-critically injured to the hospital.
Dean Campbell is leading the college’s Emergency Ops Center. Augustana has now replaced websites with an emergency alert for updates on the drill. The emergency site has links to Augustana’s website, a link for students to check-in to confirm they are ok, a campus map and links to Augustana Public Safety and the Rock Island Police Department.
President Bahls along with many administration and staff, human resources and pastoral services are in the Emergency Ops Center.
The first officer acknowledged the stimulated shooting within 20 seconds with the Hero911 app trigger. 20 officers were were alerted in under a minute.
Students were surprised by the how real the drill seemed.
“A lot of us just hit the ground and started running,” said first year Carli Schwanebeck.
Students were in Centennial Hall when a student jumped on stage and began shooting blanks into the audience. The college announced that 15 students were killed and 30 others were injured.
