Two Parkland, Fla., first responders who were on the front lines during the fourth-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history spoke to a sombre crowd at the University of Lethbridge on Tuesday.
Experiences, along with lessons learned during the Parkland school shooting, were shared with members of the Lethbridge Police Service, Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services and people with the University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge College.
Chief Tony Pustizzi (Ret.) of the Coral Springs Police Department and Chief Frank Babinec (Ret.) of the Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department were on the scene in February of 2018 when a former student entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with a firearm and shot and killed 14 students and three staff members along with injuring 17 others.
In the years since, Pustizzi and Babinec have travelled around the United States sharing their experiences; however, Tuesday was the first time they had brought their presentation north of the border.
“If you take one thing away from what we experienced, it’s worth it for us,” Pustizzi said. “Because at the time, where this happened in south Florida, we had not had something like this.”
Babinec said he’s spent a lot of time reflecting on what he and other emergency responders could have done better back on Feb. 18, 2018, and he hopes what he’s learned can help someone else in the future.
“That call became very real, very fast,
“and you know from that point forward, you just go back to your training,” Babinec said.
He said following the shooting it became clear their response could have been improved with a less siloed approach, featuring a more unified command.
“You know from a fire-rescue perspective, I think one of the biggest things that we saw is that that organizational structure could have been a little more seamless. And that is something that was brought up in our internal after-action report, as well as the state’s.”
Collaboration and communication were the key message from the presenters and those involved in emergency response in Lethbridge said they hope to improve their cross-agency training moving forward.
“I think what we heard about today is what we call a high-risk, low-frequency event,” said Lethbridge’s deputy fire chief Gerrit Sinke.
“In your entire career you may — and hopefully never — have to deal with something like this at all, but if you do — you better be ready on the day that (it) happens and that means we have to collaborate.”
Const. Matt Schoenroth with LPS said it was a lengthy process to get Pustizzi and Babinec to Lethbridge, but believes the information shared on Tuesday will prove to be invaluable.
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