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Ricky Johnson takes notes during an active shooting drill, while Anna Middleton lies on the ground portraying a shooting victim Wednesday at the World Energy Plant in Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Adams County Sheriff’s deputy Walter Mackle carries Melanie McCoy from the World Energy Plant during an active shooting drill Wednesday in Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Anna Middleton looks at her phone after pretending to be a shooting victim during an active shooter drill Wednesday at the World Energy plant in Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

(Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

(Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

By Lyndy Berryhill

NATCHEZ — Adams County law enforcement officers participated Wednesday in an active shooter drill at the World Energy plant at the Natchez-Adams County Port.

The training drill hosted by the by the Adams County Emergency Management Office was designed to prepare first responders for the unexpected.

Emergency Management Director Robert Bradford said training programs, such as Wednesday’s drill, are a part of his office’s civic responsibility to the county.

“You have so many threats in the community that you have to stay abreast of them,” Bradford said.

Bradford said Wednesday was his first active shooter drill to organize for the World Energy plant. He said the emergency management office would look at the results from the drill and set up a grading scale for the next such simulation.

“(The responders) did a great job,” Bradford said. “The purpose of the drill is to find out what you do wrong and what you do right so you can improve on it.”

Wednesday’s mock scenario involved a disgruntled husband and an accomplice, who stole a storage truck, killed the driver and drove to his wife’s workplace at World Energy with the intention of shooting her and her lover.

During the drill, the husband shot the entrance security guard. When the accomplice ran away, the husband continued into the plant and shot his wife and took her hostage.

ACSO deputies arrived at the scene Wednesday with approximately 10 officers who were armed with guns that shot rounds made of soap. After the husband released the hostage, deputies went into the building, rescued the rest of the office workers and captured the shooter. Deputies then used a drone and a hound dog to locate the runaway accomplice.

The drill began at 10 a.m., and the building was declared secure in less than 40 minutes, Bradford said.

Plant security guard Anna Middleton portrayed the first fatality of the drill.

Organizers painted her with fake blood. They also fastened a rubber, gunshot-style wound to Middleton’s forehead.

“We’re just preparing,” Middleton said. “If something like this were to happen, I would be the first to go down.”

As the drill unfolded at the World Energy office, normal operations continued at the plant.

Truck driver Jeremy Muse pulled up to the plant entrance unaware of the emergency drill. When he saw the emergency responders, Muse said he was concerned.

“I ain’t going to lie, my heart dropped,” Muse said. “I could not turn (my truck) around, and I didn’t want to be in the crossfire.”

Plant manager Wanda Horne said the drill is beneficial to both employees and first responders. She said an active shooter could be anywhere.

“They’re trying to make this as real as possible,” Horne said.

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