'Shots fired' false alarm leads to lockdown at Northwest Austin hospital
A false alarm of a shots fired report led to a lockdown Friday afternoon at Seton Northwest Hospital.
A noise someone heard in the emergency room "that they thought was a gunshot" triggered the response around 12:30 p.m., said Austin police Sgt. Preusse. He said it's unknown what the noise was.
The building was placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure, according to hospital officials. Five ambulances and multiple agencies responded to the hospital, EMS officials said. Police also closed multiple roads in the area of U.S. 183, west of MoPac Boulevard.
Austin police and hospital security checked all floors and found no evidence of a shooter or any shots fired, hospital officials said.
As officials cleared the scene, EMS Capt. Christa Stedman told reporters that "this is the best possible outcome that we could have had."
"The reason that you saw such a giant response from all the public safety agencies is so that in the event this were something more than it was, we can stop the killings, stop the dying and get patients to the hospital," Stedman said.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: 'Shots fired' false alarm leads to lockdown at Austin hospital
