Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's volunteer "posse" had a special guest on Saturday, as actor and reality show "Lawman" Steven Seagal joined in as it tackled training scenarios in the event of a school shooting.
KPNX-TV reported that members of the group conducted their training at a shuttered elementary school, with students volunteering to play the roles of victims to further simulate conditions of an attack like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut last December. Arpaio had already been deploying some of his volunteers to patrol schools around Maricopa County.
"Remember: Aggressiveness," one trainer said while preparing for an exercise. "We have to find the threat and end it. That's the only goal of any kind of active shooter training."
Arpaio and Seagal brushed off criticism regarding the actor's appearance in an interview with KSAZ-TV on Friday.
"I don't want to insult Steven, but I don't think I need Steven," said Arpaio.
Seagal, who is a reserve deputy chief for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's office in Louisiana, also denied that his celebrity status came into play.
"When I am with a SWAT team or another team, and we kick in a door, and there's a bunch of bad guys in there with guns, do you think for a second out of the thousands of times this has happened, a bad guy looks up and says, 'Hey there's a movie star?'" he said. "They don't have time."
Watch KPNX's report on the training exercise, aired Saturday, below.
And watch Arpaio and Seagal discuss the actor's participation in the training exercise, aired on KSAZ on Friday, below.
