By Nathaniel Percy
Full Article: https://www.ocregister.com/2024/02/23/sheriffs-shooting-range-gets-10-million-upgrade-to-save-lives/
Date: February 23, 2024
“Deputy Tim Ott was given this scenario on Thursday, Feb. 22, inside the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s revamped firearms training center:
A woman called dispatch and said she saw an unknown man rummaging through her trash cans and she believed he had a handgun.
Ott stood 10 yards away from a black partition with a photo of a man’s head peeking above it. Ott identified himself. Seconds later, the target moved to the left side of the barrier, revealing an object in the man’s hand.
Ott, with his service weapon pointed at the man, flinched but did not fire.
The object was a cellphone.
Deputies and other Orange County police officers can practice here when not to shoot and how to de-escalate tense situations with suspects who might be armed.
“My deputies know me, I have one rule: Number one, everyone goes home,” Sheriff Don Barnes said. “That’s not just everyone wearing a uniform, that’s everyone we deal with in the public as well.
“If we all go home, that’s a good day for us.”
…“Our deputies face … dynamic and real-world circumstances that we want to train for,” Barnes said.
..“We’re teaching them to move,” Barnes explained. “Fire and move. Get cover, don’t stand in a door frame, which we taught for many years. We’ve undone all the bad tactics.”
…Barnes said the types of training used at the facility paid off when an armed retired Ventura police sergeant showed up on Aug. 23 at Cook’s Corner, a rustic bar and restaurant in south Orange County. The ex-sergeant killed three and injured six. Deputies hustled to the scene and immediately were in a battle with the 59-year-old gunman as he tried to get more weapons from his truck; he was killed.
Barnes said those involved in that call have since thanked the training staff at the training center for preparing them for that call.
In addition to reopening the center, Barnes also dedicated the facility to a late sheriff: Now, it is called the Sandra Hutchens Regional Law Enforcement Training Center.
…“What she focused on, first and foremost, and why I think it’s so apt this facility is named after her, is training,” Barnes said. “Preparing our personnel and preparing our teams for the inevitable. Giving them the tools, the training and trusting them to do their jobs.”
…To date, Barnes said, $6.3 million had been raised and he hoped the rest would be collected by the end of summer for a 7,400-square-foot, two-story building with an interior that could be reconstructed in a matter of minutes to create six different settings, including a school, a church, a motel, and a business park.
“It’ll be the most instrumental and valuable tool to make sure our people train the right way and to bring them home safely at the end of their shift,” Barnes said.”
