Drill Brings 2,000 for Mock WMD Attack at Shea Stadium

More than 1,000 first responders converged on New York’s Shea Stadium on Sunday for a drill depicting a radiological weapons attack on the ballpark (see GSN, March 5).

“Operation United Response” cost $400,000 and involved about 2,000 police officers, firefighters, medics and “victims.” It was the largest such exercise since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to the New York Post.

The drill simulated the detonation of a weapon of mass destruction in the stadium seats. Emergency personnel set up triage centers in the parking lot, and handled the treatment and hospitalization of 600 injured “victims,” according the Post.

Bomb squads using dogs found two radiological devices in cars parked at the stadium, and police arrested six mock suspects in the parking lot (Capiello/ Fagen, New York Post, March 15).

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