A learning experience - Times Daily

FLORENCE – The situation was one of three scenarios that members of a University of North Alabama Criminal Justice class took part in Friday to learn about crime scene investigation.

In the scenario, a police officer was at an Oakview Circle residence to check on a man with outstanding warrants.

As the officer was deciding what to do after the homeowner refused to allow her to enter the house, a woman inside screamed, “please help me, he’s hurting me.”

The officer reacted immediately, going into the house to investigate. As she entered, the homeowner and a suspect shot and killed the officer.

A short time later, five members of her unit, trying to find out what happened to her, started into the house where they were met by gunfire. Four were killed.

“I saw the gun and I went back (out),” said Jacqueria Gunner, the lone survivor of the unit.

Gunner, quickly and cautiously, with weapon drawn, moved back onto the porch of the house, using one of the porch columns as cover.

She then had the people inside, one at a time, step out of the house and took them into custody, before entering the house to find her comrades and the woman hostage dead.

“I realized really quick that you can get into a very stressful situation,” Gunner said afterward as she began to process the crime scene.

In another part of the house, students were involved in a death investigation, trying to determine if a woman’s death was accidental or a homicide.

The third scenario involved a person who was stabbed to death during a bus stop robbery.

In each case, where no real weapons were used, the students relied on what they had been taught in class.

“They had to process the scene, collect the evidence,” said instructor Suzanna Taylor, a former officer with the Florence Police Department.

Yellow crime scene tape barricaded the three crime scenes keeping onlookers from contaminating the area.

Some students marked and photographed evidence, while others logged it.

“You have to really apply what you have learned in class,” said Ashley Romer, who was working on finding evidence in connection with the bus stop robbery. “But that’s the good thing about this, we’re learning through the exercise.”

Taylor said the students who took part in Friday’s mock crime scenes are criminal justice majors.

“They are taught how to process a crime scene, how to investigate different angles,” she said. “We try to stress learning techniques and investigation techniques. These crime scenes allow them to put what they have learned to use.”

Taylor said the goal is for the students to get a better understanding of processing a scene from start to finish.

“If they make mistakes, that’s fine. I had rather them make mistakes now, than if they are at an actual crime scene,” she said. “This is a learning tool and I want them to take something from this experience.”

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