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Dallas First Responders Train on Response to School Shootings

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The Dallas Independent School District and first responders trained Wednesday on how they would respond to a school shooting.

“We can never stop, never train enough to protect our children in the school district,” said Jerry Cockrell, the assistant chief of Dallas ISD police.

Inside the halls of a middle school, police and paramedics practiced their response to a shooting on campus.

Officers with the Dallas ISD Police Department, the Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire-Rescue joined together for the exercise with the events of Uvalde fresh on everyone’s mind.

“We want to show the community that we’re taking the responsibility as first responders seriously and that we’re learning as these events unfold around the country,” said Dallas Fire-Rescue Chief Dominque Artis.

Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia was asked his thoughts on law enforcement’s response inside Robb Elementary.

“It certainly does not coincide with everything that we have learned. We talk oftentimes about everything we will learn with every incident that arises. I’ve yet to see or learn things that we didn’t know in 1999.”

Garcia said training breeds confidence, but response is also a mindset.

“At the end of the day we need officers to have it in their hearts, regardless of the amount of training that they have that we are the ones that are supposed to save lives,” Garcia said.

Garcia said that message went out to his officers following the shooting in Uvalde and highlighted the quick-thinking actions of a Dallas police officer on Monday who confronted a woman who opened fire inside Dallas Love Field Airport.

“The best example I can give you is that all my men and women know what Officer Cronin did [Monday],” Garcia said. “That’s the standard that we’re holding them to.”

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