Acting out the role of a shooter, Mower County Deputy Evan Sorenson entered the Mower County Jail and Justice Center Thursday and fired several blank rounds.

Employees heard the simulated shots and took action.

“I want to expose them to the sound of gunfire so they know what it sounds like so that if it does ever happen, they’re not like ‘Oh, is it fireworks or a door slamming?’” Sorenson said. “So they know what sounds like gun shots.”

The Mower County Sheriff’s Office, Austin Police Department, and Lyle and Brownsdale police officers simulated three active shooter scenarios so Mower County courthouse employees could practice what to do in case of a real situation.

“It engrains in the employee’s heads how to respond to an incident,” said Mower County Deputy Evan Sorenson, who coordinated the event. “We want them to have practice and be able to know how to respond so they don’t freeze up. Time is of the essence in something like this and they need to be able to react quickly.”

Officers and employees trained for two hours beforehand on what to do. The strategy they use is called ALICE, or Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.

The goal of the simulation for officers was to remember what they’d learned from previous mock shootings and trainings and put those lessons into practice. The goal for employees was to activate the lockdown procedure they learned on Thursday and limit the number of casualties, or the number of victims the shooter is able to find.

“The county’s policy … [is] first you run. If you can’t run, hide in lockdown. If you can’t do that, then you fight,” Sorenson said. “It’s going to be pretty realistic for them.”

Sorenson played the bad guy and entered the upstairs hallway of the courthouse with a rifle, which was loaded with blank rounds. Employees played their part as if it was a normal day until the shooter arrived.

Once Sorenson started firing blank rounds, the employees activated their lock down procedure. Sorenson enacted several scenarios, one where he only stayed in the main hall and others were he gained access to court rooms and offices and found people hiding.

After employees heard the shots, they called 911 and the law enforcement agencies descended on the court house with mock hand guns, clearing rooms and trying to locate Sorenson. The goal was to get the drill as close to real time as possible. So in a real situation, it would take almost five minutes for law enforcement to get to the courthouse.

“You have to be quick enough to save your own life and have a fighting chance until law enforcement gets there,” Sorenson said.

But Sorenson noted that in reality the scene would probably be more chaotic.

“The goal of the final scenario is to expose them to the most realistic thing that we can get so that they know in the future if it happens, ‘Hey this is gunfire we need to react to this,’” Sorenson said.

One employee said he hid in a bathroom during the exercise and locked the door, but Sorenson was able to access it. But the employee was ready with a bat, and he hit Sorenson on the head. Sorenson said it was the right thing to do.

Sorenson also knocked on and fired at doors as employees hid, but they didn’t open the door because they didn’t know if it was Sorenson or another person.

Law enforcement has held mock exercises at I.J. Holton Intermediate School and Austin High School. The court house was chosen this time because it’s a place frequented by people who have been in trouble with law or are going through civil court cases like divorce or child custody hearings, Sorenson said.

“The building is a potential for violence. [It] potentially could be a target for something like this,” he said. “We’re adding security features and procedures to the building to make it safer.”

The timing of the drill hit home after 49 people and dozens were injured after a gunman opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando.

However, county staff and law enforcement have stressed safety and training for many years. The county has added key card doors to limit access to offices at all county offices, and the plan is to eventually add safety glass at all county offices — with much of it already in place.

Earlier this year, Mower County Sheriff Terese Amazi said the county could eventually require all people entering the courthouse to pass through a metal detector, but manning the metal detector would be costly due to staffing needs.