Tactical practice

Schultz School turned into a shooting gallery Friday that had local police and Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle trying to dodge painful paint pellets and take down police officers masquerading as gunmen.

A helmeted Swingle felt the adrenaline rush as he emptied 12 rounds from a blue handgun. "I could feel my heart pounding," he said. "I was amazed at how quickly I was out of bullets."

Protected by a bulletproof vest, the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor couldn't help but smile as he reflected on the ordeal of a tactical firearms training exercise that left him with a paint-bullet-battered shooting hand.

"The first scenario, I got killed," said Swingle, who was shot several times by paint pellets. "The second scenario, I shot the principal."

Swingle said he agreed to participate in the firearms training, mistakenly thinking that it involved some type of laser-tag-type simulator rather than paint pellets.

To his surprise, he learned some police officers had been badly bruised in the gunplay.

"I don't expect to get out of this without some pain," Swingle said before participating in the exercise. "This bookworm is going to go there and get riddled," he added.

Swingle joined a group of 10 area police officers in the exercise, the last of 15 groups of officers who underwent the training this week.

Outfitted in protective black helmets, they looked more like stormtroopers from the movie "Star Wars." Empty classrooms in the Pacific Street building in Cape Girardeau were littered with shell casings.

Friday was the last day of firearms exercises, which began Monday and involved more than 120 officers from the Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Southeast Missouri State University police departments and the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department.

About 3,000 rounds of the special paint pellets were fired during the exercises, officials said.

Plenty of bruises

Cape Girardeau police Lt. Roger Fields headed the training.

Fields said he asked Swingle to participate so he would understand what officers go through in deadly confrontations.

Shot at a velocity of 400 feet per second, the paint pellets aren't deadly, but they can generate plenty of bruises, particularly on unprotected hands.

University police officer John Brown, who previously worked for the Cape Girardeau Police Department and has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience, gave high marks to the exercise.

"I think it's very realistic," Brown said.

In the exercises, even veteran officers made mistakes, crowding into doorways at time or getting too far away from their team.

"In a scenario like this, your adrenaline is so pumped," Brown said.

Brown said the training also makes it easier for officers with different law enforcement agencies to work together in responding to a shooting spree.

"You may not know everybody, but you know how they will react," he said.

A handful of officers took turns playing the gunmen in the various training exercises. Cape Girardeau police Sgt. Barry Hovis said the "gunmen" needed some down time.

"You get shot so much you want to take a break," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123