[Scan-DC] Montgomery to review alert errors in shooting

[Alan Henney]

The Washington Post

May 13, 2016 Friday  
Suburban Edition

Montgomery to review alert errors in shooting

BYLINE: Bill Turque

SECTION: METRO; Pg. B04

LENGTH: 667 words

A Montgomery County Council committee will hold a hearing on reports of confusion and lack of uniform emergency procedures at county buildings during last Friday's fatal shootings at Montgomery Mall and the Aspen Hill Giant supermarket.

Council member Tom Hucker (D-Eastern County) said Thursday that he was troubled by reports that staff at Montgomery College's Rockville campus mistakenly issued a tornado alert over the school's new mass-notification system. Hucker also expressed concern about his own experience that day at the Silver Spring Civic Building, where he was attending a conference while news of the shooting spread. He said staffers told him they had not been trained to respond to an active shooting incident.

"I wasn't able to get clear answers on what would happen if we got information about heightened risk," said Hucker, a member of the council's Public Safety Committee. "We've invested a lot of resources in perfecting communication for snowstorms. I don't think the same level of preparation has gone into events like we saw on Friday." 

No date has been set for the hearing.

Montgomery College students followed news of the shootings on social media for at least half an hour before the school sent its first text message at 1:37 p.m. placing the Rockville and Takoma Park/Silver Spring campuses on lockdown, according to a timeline compiled by campus security officials.

That was more than an hour after Montgomery County Public Schools issued a 12:19 p.m. alert at the request of the police ordering all schools to have students and staffers shelter in place. Five minutes later, the county's recreation department posted a Twitter notice that all of its facilities were on lockdown.

Montgomery College spokesman Marcus Rosano said in an email this week that "safety, security and well-being of our students and employees is our top priority." College officials were monitoring updates from all county agencies, he said, but refrained from issuing an alert because the police had not requested it.

The college's 1:37 p.m. text alert was followed by messages on Twitter and Facebook at 1:43 p.m. and by email at 1:49 p.m.

Confusion was caused at 2:05 p.m. at the Rockville campus when a tornado alert went out over a new emergency notification system that includes public address announcements. It directed everyone to go to a floor without windows.

Rosano said the Rockville campus's emergency notification system was not yet fully installed and that "human error" caused the issuance of a test message. The alert was followed quickly by announcements that the alert was only a test and that the emergency was over. There was no such problem at the Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus, Rosano said. The notification system there is fully operational, he said.

English professor Emily Rosado, who was in Macklin Tower, which houses the Rockville campus's library as well as faculty and administrative offices, said the errant tornado alert "caused unnecessary anxiety."

Disarray was reported at the Campus Center building, where staff members and students said contract security officers moved people from upper floors into a room at the Office of Student Life, putting nearly 100 into a space with capacity for about half that number.

Rosano said that the lockdown required that people be moved from large open spaces in the building, such as the cafeteria.

Mileka Grooms, 22, a senior nursing student who works part-time at the Student Life office, said that once people were in the room, little information was conveyed about the situation.

"It's definitely nerve-racking when you are a student, and you don't know what's going on, and you're left to freak out by yourself," Grooms said.

The school sent an all-clear message at 3:13 p.m. after the 3 p.m. news conference that confirmed the capture of the alleged shooter Eulalio "Leo" Tordil.

Rosano said crisis counselors will be on all three campuses - Rockville, Germantown and Silver Spring/Takoma Park - on Friday.

bill.turque at washpost.com