The guns were drawn.
The commands were given.
Within seconds, four officers stormed the second-floor hallway of the former Mountville Elementary School.
Shots were fired and one officer was hit in the hand.
A short time later, a heavily-armed gunman was wounded, subdued and taken into custody.
The excitement Friday morning was a training exercise for the Millersville University and borough police departments as part of a massive overhaul of their security plans.
Patrick Weidinger, director of safety and environmental health at Millersville University, said the security plan is being overhauled since the Virginia Tech killings earlier this year.
Colleges here and around the country have been working on plans since that tragedy left 32 dead at the hands of Seung-Hui Cho in Blacksburg, Va., on April 16.
A letter in the MU parents' newsletter next month outlines the improvements to security. The university has been deluged with questions as students prepare to return for classes, said Janet Kacskos, director of communications.
The Millersville security plan has been an ongoing project since the terror attacks Sept. 11, 2001.
"We partnered with the borough and Penn Manor School District to create an emergency plan and share resources," Weidinger said.
"Then Virginia Tech comes along, and it reminds us we have more to do."
Thursday and Friday were a big part of that. Lt. Mike Vining, of the West Chester University police department, and a team of instructors came to Millersville to train police .
Detective Sgt. Matt Paris, of West Chester, standing before a table full of high-powered guns at the former Mountville school, said the officers were using live rounds of ceramic BBs for the exercise.
The old elementary school was chosen because students are already returning to the Millersville campus .
"This [training] gives you a realistic ballistic idea of where the bullets travel," he said. "When a shooter is under stress, it shows how they pull up and to the left the first time they fire."
While police officers visit target ranges on a regular basis, Paris said, this exercise shows what it is like to be moving and hitting a "bad guy" when he is moving or hiding. "This puts realistic stress on both the police and the gunman," he said.
The arsenal consisted of AK-47s, the gun of choice for "bad guys" because they are cheap and easy to find, Paris said, M-16s, MP5s and UMPS.
West Chester University's police force has been training for mass casualty events for six years. Vining said the chief there saw a need after the Columbine massacre. "While these things were happening at high schools, he knew they weren't isolated. Universities are small cities, so he knew it would happen," he said.
The emphasis is to get police to understand the day something happens is not the day to plan a course of action.
"There is a lot of stress that goes along with this. There is stress at being shot at, at returning fire, helping the innocent victims, and stopping the perpetrator before there are more victims," he said. "All of this needs training, so while we are not creating the plan today, we are planting the seed."
The force-on-force exercise is used because, Vining said, a certain amount of pain is needed to activate the sympathetic nervous system that creates the stress. "We teach what it is, what it does and how to recognize it is happening. The hope is they will get muscle memory because they've done it before."
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the borough, the university and the Penn Manor School District have been meeting once a month to work on disaster plans.
"Last year, we staged an evacuation of the football stadium for a severe weather event," Weidinger said.
Volunteers filled the stadium and held a soccer game on the field. "We had to determine where the safest place was to put both the players and the fans," he said.
In 2002, the group staged a shooting at Penn Manor High School. The drill was a response to the Columbine tragedy in 1999 in which Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 24 others before killing themselves at their Jefferson County, Colo., high school. In the local exercise, police went into PMHS to find the shooters and rescue hostages.
Drills are only part of the process. Weidinger said they put into practice what the plan creates. Part of that plan is an enhanced 911 system.
"We worked with the Lancaster County Emergency Management Agency to create a system where a call to 911 from campus will be identified right down to the room it is in. They will know the call came from Millersville University, the building address and the room specific," he said. "That way, if the caller can't talk, the dispatcher will know where he is."
Security cameras have also been placed in the lobby areas of all residence buildings. Weidinger said this is a phase-in program that will eventually include cameras in the hallways and stairwells.
The campus police also have "long" guns — shotguns and rifles so the police have the firepower they need.
"In this day and age, you need firepower to match the bad guys, and you have to have training so you know how to use it."
Weidinger said shootings can't be overlooked, but other things are more likely. With a grant for hazard mitigation planning from the federal Homeland Security, the university has looked at what natural disasters could happen as well as terrorism. "For us, Three Mile Island is a concern, but the biggest threat is flooding," he said.
Teaming with the borough and the school district has helped in the planning, he said. "Since we meet and we know what each other's plans look like, we know we use the same language and can share resources."
All three plans use the same protocols and one definition for "emergency."
In July, the university held an all-day tabletop exercise. Weidinger said everyone from the university president down were involved in how to communicate the incident to all people campus and how to respond.
In the exercise, a person on campus shot two people and took hostages. "It escalated from there," he said. "It taxes our ability to respond and required flexibility as we responded to changing scenarios as they unfolded."
Other features new to the university this year are blue-light emergency phones across campus. Weidinger said these phones are on blue poles that are very visible. "Anyone with an emergency, either medical or an attack, can hit a button on the pole and talk into a speaker that connects with a dispatcher."
No matter what, once the button is pushed, the dispatcher can hear what's happening and call emergency personnel.
The dispatch service has been upgraded, as well. Weidinger said the university has contracted with a security group so the phones are manned 24 hours. "We used to use campus employees," he said.
"We are also looking into buying a siren system. When an emergency is taking place, the siren would sound, alerting everyone to go to a computer or cellular phone to get a message," he said.
The system would also have a reverse 911. The emergency would be called to the phones and broadcast over speakers. The message would not only explain what is happening, but what everyone should be doing, he said.
Wayne Wilcox, chief of the Millersville University police department, said students will be instructed to contact their parents within a few hours of any event on campus.
"We also want each student to have the campus emergency number — 872-3911 — in his or her cell phone. We might even walk around and randomly check if they have it. We might even use an incentive," he said.
"We are dealing with a population —17- to 21-year-olds — who typically think nothing can happen to them. But when Virginia Tech happened, I think it opened their eyes."
In the exercise detailed at the beginning of this story, Wilcox was the "bad guy."
Weidinger has also created an emergency response guidebook. Everyone on campus will eventually have pocket guides. "Right now, the faculty and staff have them and they are available online for students," he said.
"This guide says if there is a chemical spill, do this; a shooter or hostage, do this; a violent person, do this. We want people to keep them by their desks for quick reference," he said.
Chief Wilcox, taking a break from his live-round exercises Friday, said he has learned a lot. "We have this on paper and we practice it, but not live. I've been shot twice in the back now. It stings like a bee and gets your attention."
All but one of the 20 university officers participated along with four borough officers. Wilcox said the Penn Manor resource officer attended Thursday.
Wilcox, who said his biggest job this fall is to meet with the freshmen about campus safety, said the university is looking at conducting a large incident-training event on campus in the spring.
"The tabletop was an eye opener for many of us. It showed how quickly a staging area has to be set up. You can have a plan, but when the rubber meets the road, you need communication."
Cris Foehlinger is a staff writer for the Sunday News. Her e-mail address is cfoehlinger@lnpnews.com.
