NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) - Tuscarawas County’s sheriff has been giving county employees as many tools as possible to be ready for an active shooter situation. 

Orvis Campbell says his latest training for staff at the courthouse office building included bringing a high-powered rifle to the offices after hours and firing blanks to let employees hear what a gunshot sounds like indoors. Campbell says if people can identify what is happening sooner, they can react faster.

“On this specific day, what we wanted to do was explain to them that a gunshot may not sound as they would expect it to sound in the building. It sounds different in every building. We’ve done it some schools after-hours with just some staff, of course,” he says.

Campbell says employees stayed in their offices as deputies moved through the building, firing single shots from different areas.

“The caliber was 7.62x39. That would be the same as like an AK-47. This was a gun that was owned by one of our firearm instructors, Lt. Alford, so it was one of his personal guns just because we had more of those blanks than we did of other calibers,” he says.

Campbell says they fired about 17 shots in all before wrapping up the training, and employees told him they were surprised by what they heard.

“In some areas, the explosion from the gun knocked dust out of light fixtures in the ceilings, and that was somewhat shocking to them. It was an intense thing even knowing it was happening and knowing it was fake. Some of them felt just slightly overwhelmed with the intensity of what it was,” he says. 

Employees were given the option to stay for the training after the courthouse had closed for the day.

WJER RADIO