School shootings are happening so often that law enforcement professionals routinely train for them.
On the same day that two people were shot and killed on UCLA’s campus, KIRO 7 was there as NORCOM 911 -- which services North King County -- trained a dispatcher on how to deal with a school shooting.
Dozens of dispatchers at NORCOM 911 have already trained for an active shooter. On Wednesday morning, Adam Lasker was training to be one of them.
In the other room, Chris Burdick, with NORCOM, acted as a police officer -- calling Lasker and reporting what was happening at the school as if it were happening in real time.
Burdick also pretended to be other people who reported the shooting. He read from a prepared script, with background noises like shouting and gunfire punctuating the phone calls.
"I put as much effort into the acting part as I can," said Burdick.
But acting and reality blurred together for Adam Lasker, who took phone call after phone call as the dispatcher.
"We hope we never have to use these skills, but if the situation ever does come where we have to use those skills we want it to be familiar with how it's going to go down. We don't want it to be a first-time situation for us," said Lasker.