Just before school was about to start on the morning of April 27, 2015, a male student with a .357 Magnum in hand walked down a flight of stairs into the North Thurston High School Commons, an area teeming with students. He raised the gun and fired into the ceiling. Chaos erupted. Then he fired again. What happened next is the best-case scenario in the face of such terror.

Washington OneNet is pleased to announce the premiere of Shots Fired, a short film that explores the events of the 2015 North Thurston High School shooting in Lacey, Washington and looks at the need for interoperable communications between schools and responders in a critical incident.

“As a parent whose daughter attended the school at the time of the shooting and as the State Point of Contact for FirstNet in Washington, I recognize the critical importance of communications between the public and responders,” said Governor Jay Inslee’s State Point of Contact appointee, Shelley Westall. “Shots Fired is a filmic case study of what worked well and what could have worked better from a communications technology standpoint in dealing with a critical incident. OneNet is committed to improving the public’s understanding of the technology challenges that responders face.Shots Fired will help elevate that conversation.”
 
“The documentary honors the courage and resilience of a community that dealt head-on with an active threat, and makes a new and productive contribution to the national conversation about school shootings.” – Rob St. John Chair of the Washington State Interoperability Executive Committee and Deputy Director of Washington Technology Solutions (WaTech) and the Office of the Chief Information Officer