The sound of gunfire is not one many would run towards, but for police officers and emergency responders, it is their job. But, fighting crime and taking down the bad guys is only step one. In many cases, there are innocent victims and even the suspects themselves who need medical attention, and that is what several officers from Western Mass. were training for this week.

"It gives the civilian and the downed officer the advantage of having the treatment faster than having the ambulance showing up. So, we're already starting treatment, recognizing the adverse reactions of something that occurred, and we can correct them in the field prior to the ambulance getting there," said Eric Stratton, a Hampden Co. Sheriff's Dept. Tactical Team Medic.

Emergency responders from the State Police, Westover, Springfield, Ludlow, and American Medical Response teamed up for a week-long session at the Springfield Fire Training Center. They are learning Tactical Medical Response.

"This type of training is invaluable to save lives," said Springfield Police spokesperson Sgt. John Delaney.

By practicing with real life scenarios, the officers are better able to respond to extreme situations where they might find people facing life-threatening injuries.

"What we're looking to do is up their pulse rate and get the anxiety up so we can make sure that under these extreme conditions, they can still operate while they're doing their police correctional work, and they're expected to do certain medical skills," Stratton said.

Even if that means trying to stabilize a patient while they're under fire. The trainers said the small-scale training will help emergency crews handle large-scale catastrophes.

"This is only going to help the region... If a Columbine incident happened somewhere in Western Massachusetts, we're going to have 15 officers here who are trained to respond to an incident like that to treat the wounded right on scene, which is going to save lives," Delaney said.