New York City Active Shooter Drill: First Responders Preparing For Attack Hours After Flight Receives Bomb Threat

Hundreds of New York City Police officers and other first responders conducted drills simulating an active shooter situation in a Manhattan subway station on Sunday morning in preparation for a surprise attack similar to the terrorist attacks in Paris and the Malian hotel this past week.

The simulation began around 4 a.m. ET and included participants from the New York Police Department, Official Fire Department City of New York (FDNY), and Homeland Security. New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, said the agencies are now working closer together to keep New Yorkers safe, the New York Post reported.

“There’s now constant coordination between these agencies, constant meetings to plan together how to respond to a variety of situations and that is making all New Yorkers safer,” de Blasio said.

The active shooter drill, which lasted approximately three hours, involved two scenarios, both with mock calls saying armed men were on the subway platform and both involving four active shooters. The calls also reportedly said that several people had been shot. In the end, officials said there were 30 casualties and that 12 people had been critically injured. Officials also said the shooter wearing the suicide bombing vest was “neutralized” before the vest was set off.

The New York officers were given very little information before going into the station, according to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.

“We try to learn very quickly and put that into play,” Bratton said. “The idea is to get in and minimize casualties.”

Regardless, Commissioner Bratton believes the first responders performed well during the simulation, especially considering it was the first exercise for two of New York’s new counter terrorism groups.

“We have not only our traditional highly trained Emergency Service Unit, but we are rolling into this exercise for the first time our Critical Response Command of 527 counter-terrorism officers and our 800-person Strategic Response Group,” Bratton said.

In addition, Commissioner Bratton said that the lessons learned in this drill are meant to be passed on to police and fire departments across the country.

While the timing of the simulation points to the recent terror attacks, New York officials say the drill was organized almost a year ago. They also said, however, that the scenario was altered to include aspects from last week’s attack, including a suicide bomber.

Commissioner Bratton said there isn’t a specific threat against the city of New York at the moment, but that the city is always in ISIS’ crosshairs.

Who could argue with Bratton’s assessment with the terror level being as high as it is? Earlier on Sunday morning, a Turkish Airlines flight from New York to Istanbul had to be diverted to Canada after reports of a bomb threat, CNN reported.

Authorities said no explosive device was found on the plane, which was combed through by bomb-sniffing dogs in Halifax. The 256 passengers aboard the flight were taken by bus to the terminal, while their bags were checked for anything suspicious. The airline later tweeted that the aircraft was scheduled to continue its flight to Istanbul later that morning.

The Turkish Airlines aircraft is scheduled to continue on to #Istanbul later this morning. The investigation into the threat is ongoing.

— RCMP Nova Scotia (@RCMPNS) November 22, 2015

[Photo by Spencer Platt/ Getty Images]