The sound of gunfire and screaming children echo throughout the halls as gunmen terrorize a local school.

That was the scene at Ruth Powell Elementary School on Thursday as law enforcement agencies practiced an active shooter training scenario.

A team of three Federal Bureau of Investigation agents led by Special Agent Keith Tolhurst of the Phoenix SWAT Team conducted the training seminar, which included a live-action scenario that used real elementary aged children. The students involved were volunteers from the Boys and Girls Club program and spent the day running and screaming down the halls as if they were really being shot at by a gunman.

Safford Detective P.J. Allred leads his group of officers after a suspected gunman during a live-action training scenario at Ruth Powell Elementary School on Thursday. The officers are, front from left, EACPD Chief Mike McEuen, Allred and Safford Detective Jason Knight; back, Safford officers Wade Sanders and Luke Arbizo. FBI Special Agent Keith Tolhurst follows and examines the officers’ reactions. Photo by Jon Johnson

"We want to thank Lauri Armstrong and Kara Hall for bringing kids from the Boys and Girls Club over there because nothing will take the adrenaline up like a screaming 7-year-old girl running at you," Safford Chief John Griffin said.

The officers taking part in the training did not know beforehand there would be actual children portraying victims. Griffin said that took the training experience to a whole other level.

After classroom training in the morning, officers from all of the local agencies formed into groups and went through the live training. Special Agent Tolhurst then briefed the officers on the positive and negative reactions of the separate groups. Afterward, the officers reformed groups and performed the training again.

During the inoculation training, agent Steve Patterson ran around the school shooting blanks and pretended to terrify the children. The officers formed what they called a "diamond" as they pursued the shooter. The formation essentially enabled officers to be looking in every direction. When they repeated the scenario, agent Mike Gallante surprised them as an additional shooter.

Griffin said the training was very effective.

"We train regularly, but it was a good opportunity for us to bring these FBI guys in just to kind of refresh us and bring us up to speed on any new tactics or anything," he said. "In those situations our job is to end the threat. We don't stop when we have an active shooter. We don't stop to treat (the) injured. We don't stop to help kids. We don't do anything but to go to wherever that immediate threat is and stop it."

Out of the law enforcement agencies taking part in the training, Safford had 17 officers, Thatcher had eight, Pima had five, Eastern Arizona College Police Department had two and the Graham County Sheriff's Office had one.