Connecticut National Guard Hosts Joint Active Shooter Response Training With Enfield Police Department

ENFIELD, Conn – The Connecticut National Guard, Enfield Police Department, and Capitol Region Emergency Services Team, conducted a joint active-shooter response exercise at the Enfield Armory in Enfield, Connecticut, June 5, 2026.

The exercise helped the Connecticut National Guard reinforce critical security measures, identify potential vulnerabilities and provide local law enforcement personnel with familiarity of the armory while practicing their response to an active-threat scenario.

“Interagency coordination is important because, in Connecticut, the National Guard is a support element.” Said Master Sgt. Nicholas Triano, the event organizer, "We need to be able to support police, fire, EMS and other first responders to the best of our ability, and exercises like this show us how to do that.”

The full-scale exercise helped prepare interagency partners by using a realistic scenario to utilize technology and communications systems, respond to simulated medical emergencies, conduct practical breaching, threat identification, and hostage negotiation, among other potentially life-saving tasks.

The exercise began with a soldier role-playing an active shooter, shooting at an Enfield Police officer with simulated rounds from a rooftop. Enfield’s CREST Team subsequently rescued the simulated casualty in an armoured vehicle and returned fire against the threat.

“The realistic training environment, from the armory itself to the role players, created a high-stress response for our law enforcement partners,” Triano said. “It gave them the opportunity to respond to a complex threat in a facility they may have to enter during a real emergency.”

Over the course of the exercise, CREST members and Enfield police officers practiced rescuing hostages while simultaneously identifying if they were active threats embedded within victims. The Enfield police simultaneously manned the operations center which served as a conduit for communication between external agencies and the robbers. This allowed them to conduct hostage negotiations and conduct surveillance.

The culminating event concluded with the breach of the Enfield armory, where the CREST team quickly rescued hostages and neutralized remaining threats.

Planning for the exercise began while the Connecticut National Guard personnel were updating the emergency action plan when they identified an opportunity for improvement in response procedures for incidents occurring at facilities outside Joint Force Headquarters. That opportunity led planners to develop a scenario that would test how the organization coordinates with local first responders during an emergency.

Prior to the culminating exercise, the Connecticut National Guard and Enfield Police Department conducted several internal progress reviews and a tabletop exercise to walk through the response process and identify other areas of improvement for coordination and refine planning before the live action exercise.

“This exercise validated the core components of the battle drill we are developing and highlighted that continuous improvement is essential to interagency coordination,” Triano said. “It showed us how local first responders respond, what information they need from us and how we can best support them.”