Sheriff’s SWAT team trained in Parish Courthouse to be prepared for an emergency situation in a busy, public building

Several members of the St. Bernard Sheriff’s SWAT team descend a stairwell to the lobby in the Parish Courthouse during tactical training in a simulation involving one or more armed intruders.	Several SWAT team members look for an intruder in the darkened main courtroom, including checking behind the blinds of the large windows.
Wearing gas masks in a simulation of a possible gas attack, SWAT team members search an area in the Courthouse.	Walking with guns raised, SWAT team members check the hallway of an area of prisoner holding cells and search each cell for a possible intruder.
Using a shield, officers clear an upstairs hallway.	SWAT officers train their guns on the Courthouse lobby from the railing of the second-floor.

No one wants to think about an emergency situation such as gunmen in a busy, public building like the St. Bernard Parish Courthouse. But that is why the Sheriff’s SWAT team recently held tactical training there, to be prepared to respond in a worst case scenario, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.

“In today’s environment, it’s crucial to be prepared for anything,’’ Sheriff Pohlmann said, “and the best way to do that is to train, in this case walk through the Courthouse and practice tactics for a response.

“Of course, you hope you never have to deal with the kind of incidents that have happened in some parts of the country but you have no choice except to be ready.’’

The Courthouse, which reopened last year on West Bernard Highway, has been re-designed, including expanding some offices and eliminating others and adding prisoner holding cells downstairs.

I was necessary to re-train there, said Maj. Robert McNab, who heads the SWAT team and is commander of the sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Bureau.

Some of it involved tactical training in the large courtroom, the large stairwells, in corridors and in the area of prisoner holding cells.

It was the same way with parish schools, many of which were entirely re-built after Hurricane Katrina, Sheriff Pohlmann said. SWAT team officers needed to familiarize themselves with new school layouts, the sheriff said, and took the opportunity to do so in recent months,

“The summer break, with schools closed, was a good time to do this,’’ he said, in coordination with Superintendent of Schools Doris Voitier’s office.

As well as the SWAT training, numerous St. Bernard deputies from all divisions have attended active-shooter training exercises covering various types of situations, the sheriff emphasized.