COLUMBIA, S.C. — A shooting on Wednesday afternoon injured three students at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School.
According to reports, someone drove by the school as students were being dismissed and opened fire, striking three students.
News19 reached out to Newberry Sheriff Lee Foster to ask how law enforcement handles these kind of situations.
According to Foster, the first job for law enforcement is to insure any people who are injured get medical aid, then to secure the area to make sure others are safe.
"This is a bit different, " said Foster, "since this is a drive by you would secure the scene and then evacuate the rest of the students to a safe location."
Because of this, the majority of officers would be looking for the suspect or suspect car and setting up a perimeter to try to catch the shooter. '
Then he continued that you would have evidence techs collecting anything to help identify the criminal. He went on to say that drones are very helpful in looking for suspects or getting an overview or "bird's eye" view of the scene.
Sheriff Foster said that school resource officers would be more than likely watching points--such as thee car rider line--as students go home.Some schools only have one resource officer, so they would be where the most students would be located.
He went on to say, "they would be working to get students safe."
The best advice, according to Sheriff Foster, "SROS work with teachers on safety plans and try to be ready for things like this, which is sad state of affairs, and making sure students listen to SRO's and teachers and take it seriously, but you can't live your life in fear. Being prepared and being cautious is not being in fear.:"