SAN ANTONIO – Police officers from San Antonio and the surrounding area are undergoing intense training to master first aid skills.
Instructors call the training course a worst-case scenario for officers, in which your partner is shot and you still have a suspect that you need to track down.
It's a situation where officers have to act quickly and use tactical first aid.
"It's a first aid for officers when they arrive on scene before EMS can get into a scene to help them," said Bart Vasquez, a tactical medic for the San Antonio Police Department.
Vasquez said every minute counts when someone is seriously hurt.
"We always want EMS to take over any type of first aid," said Vasquez. "But there's always that time before the scene is clear or before we know that there is no other suspects, that time is ticking away that somebody has been injured."
Vasquez said with the help of the nonprofit Hope Shield Foundation and Pete Hardy's Krav Maga facility, the instructors, who are tactical medics with SAPD, are able to arm officers with the training and the equipment they need.
"It's very important when you think about the type of injuries officers have seen -- gunshots, stabbings," said Vasquez. "Also, for the general public, they can use this training on the general public. So a lot of times officers are there first and we're able to start that quality first aid."
The most intense part of the training happens at the end of the day, but instructors said if they can get through this, they can get through anything.
"It's very important to help save somebody's life," said Vasquez.
And while the tactical training is not mandatory, instructors said it gives officers an edge.