Report of active shooter causes scare at Renton Boeing plant

Police say they found no threat of an active shooter at Boeing’s Renton plant on Thursday morning.

At 5:39 a.m., Renton police received a 911 call about an active shooter situation at the Boeing final assembly.

“A second level came in to tell us in the area I was working in that there was an active shooter on the property. Everybody needed to get out,” said a Boeing employee who wants to remain anonymous.

As police headed to the scene, Boeing alerted employees. Some workers say that as they walked out, they saw armed officers.

“Newcastle, Des Moines, SeaTac, King County Sheriff’s (deputies) and the Renton Police (were) all on-site, and at least two officers walking around the same building with AR-15s and our security guards,” the employee said.

“We were unable to locate any evidence that anything had occurred on the Boeing campus, and Boeing Security checked their surveillance video and found no indication that there had been anything alarming there,” according to Renton Police Department Det. Robert Onishi.

Onishi says they got a call around the same time that may have been the source of the active shooter report. The sound of multiple gunshots was reported to have been heard from an apartment parking lot off Sunset Boulevard North.

That location is on the far side of Interstate 405 from Boeing and is about three-quarters of a mile away from the plant. But in the silence of the early morning, the sound may have alarmed someone at Boeing, Onishi said.

There is no evidence that anyone was hurt in the shots fired incident.

Despite this being a false alarm, employees at Boeing say there could have been better communication.