The active shooter incident at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Medical Center has turned out to be a false alarm, according to base officials.
"There was no real world active shooter incident on Wright-Patterson AFB and base personnel remain safe, according to the official Wright-Patterson Twitter account.
Federal and state authorities in armored vehicles and unmarked cars swarmed onto the sprawling Air Force base, east of Dayton, Ohio, Thursday in response to the reported incident at the base medical center. Among the agencies responding to the incident were the Ohio State Highway Patrol, local police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
One Twitter user wrote that she had family at the hospital and relayed what she was told by them over social media.
“Shooter is barricaded on 4th floor of base Medical Center. Have family there. All employees, over 20,000, told to ‘shelter in place,' " she wrote.
A follow-on statement by Air Force officials said that the incident was determined to be an active shooter.
“Our first priority in any emergency incident is to protect the men and women at Wright-Patt. Our base security forces defenders and fire department personnel are trained to quickly assess situations and take necessary action. An investigation is under way,” a statement from the Wright-Patterson AFB Twitter account read.
Video from outside of the hospital showed service members and others standing outside the building about two hours after the base said emergency workers responded to reports of active shooter. WHIO-TV reported that an announcement was made telling some people to leave the building with their hands on their heads.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Kyle Rempfer was an editor and reporter who has covered combat operations, criminal cases, foreign military assistance and training accidents. Before entering journalism, Kyle served in U.S. Air Force Special Tactics and deployed in 2014 to Paktika Province, Afghanistan, and Baghdad, Iraq.
