Full Notification

On Thursday, August 24th Port Angeles Police Department and the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office will be hosting a large-scale Active Shooter training exercise at Peninsula College. The event will run from around 10 am to 4:30 pm and will include the closing of several streets around the college; most notably:

• E. Lauridsen Blvd will be closed between Liberty and Ennis Street.
o Liberty Street will remain open from Lauridsen.
o Ennis will remain open between 8th and 1st Street.
• E. Park Ave will be closed between Porter and the college, including
the intersection at Porter Street.
• Porter Street will be closed between Highland and Park Ave.

Motorists are strongly encouraged to use:
• S. Race Street to access the areas north and west of the college.
• East 5th Street for east / west traffic instead of Lauridsen Blvd. in the area east of Race Street.
• S. Race instead of north / south Liberty and north / south Ennis.
Residents living in the 1300-1500 block of E. Lauridsen will have access to their homes.

There will be a large police and fire presence at and around the college, including ambulances traveling from the college to the hospital. Several “flash bangs” (loud diversionary devices) will be employed to start the event, around noon. Much of the activity will be inside campus buildings and not visible from the outside, but First Responders will be all around the campus’ perimeter.

Participating agencies include Clallam County Emergency Management, Sequim PD, Elwha PD, Washington State Patrol, Customs and Border Protection, Port Townsend PD, Olympic National Park, Olympic Medical Center, Port Angeles Fire Dept., US Coast Guard, CCFD #2 Fire/Rescue, Red Cross, Olympic Ambulance, and Peninsula College. Many volunteer participants will be filling the roles of victims and suspects. The training objective is to practice the complex integration of multiple government and civilian agencies for the purpose of managing and mitigating the damage caused by a violent, mass casualty event. A further objective is to exercise as many components in the emergency response system as possible and for participants to learn in a realistic context.

Entry into the training venue will be tightly controlled and part of a well-developed event safety plan. The areas that have access controlled will have personnel staffing ingress and egress points and law enforcement will control the perimeter surrounding the training venue.