SWAT team plans hostage exercises

SWAT team members will be doing training exercises at three locations Thursday night.

According to Whitman County Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Pelissier, who is also the sniper team leader for the SWAT team, the exercises will basically be hostage rescue training.

“In the past we’ve done hostage rescue training at homes, but most hostage situations occur at businesses,” he said.

The first business for the training exercise will be tonight, Thursday, at Columbia Bank in Colfax. The training will be held after business hours with only Manager Kathy Wride at the bank.

Pelissier said the SWAT team goes through a training exercise once a month.

“We will exercise tactics on how we go about resolving a situation with hopefully no casualties and get the situation under control,” he said.

The next training exercise will be at Rosauers after the grocery store closes with about the same scenario, he said.

The third and final destination will be at a movie theater in Pullman.

Pelissier said the team will do several hostage scenarios at each location.

The SWAT team consists of officers from the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office, Pullman Police Department and WSU Police Department.