Now that the Bossier City Police and Fire departments have two armored vehicles that could be used in a possible active shooter scenario, the departments are looking to stock up on weapons and ammunition to protect first responders while they try to save lives in such a situation.

The Bossier City Council next week will consider adopting an ordinance appropriating up to $75,000 to purchase a mounted weapons system and ammunition that would be used on the two armored vehicles. The money would be used from the city's 2018 EMS Capital and Contingency Fund.

“This is a mounted weapons system to go on top of the two armored vehicles that will provide police protection while we’re trying to work in an active shooter situation,” Fire Chief Brad Zagone told the council at its March 20 meeting.

A price quote from Battle Rifle Company shows the departments would look to purchase two Machine Gun Armory (MGA) 300 Blackout squad automatic weapons (SAW) to be mounted on the vehicles for $9,998 each, and an MGA SAW-K 300 Blackout for $13,998, which can be mounted or carried.

Ammunition listed in the quote includes 5.56-mm linked belts and 300 Blackout linked belts.

The police department has had an armored vehicle, purchased from Lenco Armored Vehicles, for over a year, Bossier City spokesperson Mark Natale said.

Back in October 2017, the fire department received approval from the council to use up to $375,000 to purchase a BearCat MedEvac, also from Lenco Armored Vehicles.

“Through the last three or four years, we’ve been doing a lot of training on active shooters, and I hate to say it, but it’s kind of what we’ve been seeing around the country,” Zagone said at the time. “A lot of victims, when we look at these studies, die from a non-fatal gunshot wound, and we want to be able to get to the victims fast.”

Zagone said the MedEvac would allow the fire department to start retrieving victims as police work the scene and continue to deal with the ongoing emergency.

“This will allow us during that period of (police) vetting the stories of multiple shooters or IEDs or suspicious packages, or whatever, that we can go in and be taking care of victims,” Zagone said. “We would use this to go in, get a victim, go back to the staging area where we set up triage with our other ambulances.”

The new MedEvac was delivered recently and is intended to be used as an armored medical transport vehicle.