Active shooter @ The Ohio State University

Status
Not open for further replies.

W8RMH

Feed Provider Since 2012
Joined
Jan 4, 2009
Messages
8,110
Location
Grove City, OH (A Bearcat not a Buckeye)
Live audio of the response is available in the feed archives. At 10:09:26 it reached 41,038 listeners.

OSU activated their emergency response program and it worked. An OSU officer was on scene within one minute and confronted the terrorist.

Thoughts and prayers go out to all victims, students, staff, and first responders.

I also noticed when the OSUPD comm center called Zone 4 advising them of the incident the Zone 4 Lieutenant asked the comm center to patch OSU in and they were unable to do so. They are both on MARCS now, they obviously need more training on how to use these new systems.
 
Last edited:

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
Yeah definitely a situation where patch was needed between the two or more. Either the console isn't capable, or the dispatcher isn't aware it's possible. Training will come of it and I'm sure so will the communications end of the situation. This is where both those agencies should have access to another on the radio itself as well as patching abilities. It is absurd for any local law enforcement not to be able to directly communicate or have ability to monitor another.
 

grumpy_hermit

Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2009
Messages
381
Location
Ohio
Kudos to the OSU officer that took that guy out.

In every mock disaster training event that I have participated in, communication was always identified as the #1 weak point. The sad part is that the issue was never addressed with anything but lip service during debriefing.
 

wdz

Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2004
Messages
177
Location
Columbus, Ohio
Yeah definitely a situation where patch was needed between the two or more. Either the console isn't capable, or the dispatcher isn't aware it's possible. Training will come of it and I'm sure so will the communications end of the situation. This is where both those agencies should have access to another on the radio itself as well as patching abilities. It is absurd for any local law enforcement not to be able to directly communicate or have ability to monitor another.

One of the CPD supervisors on Zone 4 requested a patch, he was told that per one of the communications supervisors that it was not possible.
 

N4GIX

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 27, 2015
Messages
2,124
Location
Hot Springs, AR
One of the CPD supervisors on Zone 4 requested a patch, he was told that per one of the communications supervisors that it was not possible.

Yes, but is that because it really is not possible, or only because no one is aware of how to do a patch?
 

budevans

Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2009
Messages
2,175
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
Yes, but is that because it really is not possible, or only because no one is aware of how to do a patch?

Or maybe no one has done the proper paper work to request the programming for the patch. I would think there is very specific paper work that has to be filled out regarding a patch, things like mutual consent plus terms, conditions, guidelines, etc....

Another option might be specifically defined shared Talk Group(s).
 
Last edited:

Colin9690

Delaware County, OH
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Mar 20, 2004
Messages
1,870
Location
Lewis Center, OH
Eventually they moved most of their comms over to XECOMM-15 for the purpose of interoperability, but this was hours after the actual event.
 

jscott02

Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Messages
223
Eventually they moved most of their comms over to XECOMM-15 for the purpose of interoperability, but this was hours after the actual event.

^^This.

Every radio in the county has about 15 bajillion mutual aid/interop talkgroups programmed into it. Dispatchers need to gently remind incident commanders of these things sometimes, but then again, that assumes the dispatchers know whats in their radios and the radios of their field units.
 

wa8pyr

Technischer Guru
Staff member
Lead Database Admin
Joined
Sep 22, 2002
Messages
6,982
Location
Ohio
^^This.

Every radio in the county has about 15 bajillion mutual aid/interop talkgroups programmed into it. Dispatchers need to gently remind incident commanders of these things sometimes, but then again, that assumes the dispatchers know whats in their radios and the radios of their field units.

In addition, all CPD radios already have the OSU talkgroups in them, so a patch would not be necessary; any responding CPD units could simply switch to the proper talkgroup(s), which they did anyway.

Plus, daily life still goes on in the city outside campus, and a patch would compromise the ability of CPD to respond to events in the City by unnecessarily tying up the involved City talkgroup(s) with OSU traffic and vice versa. That may have been what the City dispatcher was referring to; many agencies have policies in place to not patch their primary operations talkgroups to other talkgroups for this very reason.

There's always some confusion in the opening phase of an incident, but overall, the standard countywide law enforcement channel plan was a great success, enabling responding units (from OSU, Franklin Co SO, CPD, Grove City PD and others) to communicate seamlessly by simply switching to the proper channel on their radios.

More education and familiarization is probably necessary (it always is), but all the planning and training already accomplished definitely paid off.
 
Last edited:

wa8pyr

Technischer Guru
Staff member
Lead Database Admin
Joined
Sep 22, 2002
Messages
6,982
Location
Ohio
Of course the active shooter was a LEO who thankfully took out the perp.

But no one knew that at the time the incident went out; it was originally put out as an active shooter.

Could have been worse. . .
 

phask

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
3,670
Location
KZZV - SE Ohio
Did anyone catch the Chopper where they wanted to use the PA, he asked if anyone on the ground could hear them, reply was "Negative", he advised " They rewired this chopper and I guess it doesn't work". Sounds like another issue.

Though I did hear some SO units - if so GOOD - mention of both ATF and FBI and I believe info. was transferred. Think they both have Marcs as well - but maybe not in every vehicle or handheld.

Biggest fubar was OSU giving an all clear and CPD not being aware, then after it had been out for a few minutes, they decided not to re-issue one as - paraphrasing - "too late now". They still had not cleared one parking garage and maybe some other areas.

Thanks W8RMH for the feed
 

W8RMH

Feed Provider Since 2012
Joined
Jan 4, 2009
Messages
8,110
Location
Grove City, OH (A Bearcat not a Buckeye)
It went out as an active shooter because OSUPD called it in to CPD Zone 4 over the Z4 dispatch channel as "shots fired, 1 down" and they never stated that the officer was the one that fired the shots. Even as they reported the suspect was in custody they referred to him as "the shooter". I guess it was best to treat this as an active shooter incident until the area was secured, but with my tactical experience Ii think this would have went better if everyone was able to communicate with each other directly.

The proper procedure would have been to advise all responding units to switch to the OSUPD channel. I listened to the dispatch channel comms on the archive and there was a good deal of confusion.
 

pinballwiz86

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jan 15, 2013
Messages
1,565
Location
Missouri
Good thing that idiot brought a knife to a gun fight! Kudos goes to the officer for ridding OSU of a whack job.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top