HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – One can only imagine the terror of walking into a school where a deadly shooting just took place. Even Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies who’ve never experienced a mass shooting are required to train in how to deal with one.

At the sheriff’s office training facility, a high tech simulator puts deputies through a drill as if they were walking through a school where a gunman is on the loose.

Sgt. Roland Corrales runs the simulator and believes this is as real as it gets.

“When your body is put under stress, it goes through a bunch of physical changes. Your adrenaline goes up, your heart rate gets faster, your breathing gets shallow,” said Corrales. “And that’s what this simulator does.”

In October, HCSO gave us a tour of the facility and allowed our cameras to capture the activity. In the scenario, the shooter is loose in a library. Deputies approach the area with caution, as students run by them in the video. One of the officers responding is hit with a bullet. Deputies yell to the fellow officer to put pressure on the wound and they make their way to the library.

Corrales says some of what is taught is how to deal with what your body does in a stressful situation. Law enforcement officers know they’re walking into a dangerous, possibly deadly scene. But how will their bodies react? Will they be able to concentrate on what’s happening around them when they begin to experience the stress first hand?

“Now, if I’m not concentrating on what my body is doing, I can concentrate on what’s happening around me,” said Corrales. “And that’s where we want to get them to at that place. So they have that situational awareness where they can concentrate more on what’s developing in front of them.”

Tampa Police Department spokesman Eddie Durkin says officers have to go through a similar training program at TPD, as well as real life school shooting training exercises at actual school buildings when school is not in session.

Follow Chip Osowski on Facebook

An official GoFundMe campaign has been created by the Broward Education Foundation. The funds raised will be used to provide direct relief and financial support to the victims and families following the shooting in Florida.RELATED COVERAGE-