All clear after active shooter report at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
DAYTON, Ohio (WABC) -- Armored vehicles and unmarked cars swarmed onto a sprawling Air Force base in Ohio amid reports of an active shooter, but base officials later said there was never a real world shooter.
Reports of the active shooter also began with a tweet from the base telling workers at Wright-Patterson were told to shelter in place.
Video from outside of the hospital showed service members and others standing outside the building.
WHIO-TV reported that an all-clear was given to base personnel shortly before 3:00 p.m., advising the threat has passed.
The call came during a training exercise that included an active shooter scenario in another area of the base at least a half-mile away, said Daryl Mayer, a base spokesman.
So far, it's not clear why the 911 call was made from inside the base or whether it was prompted by the training exercise, he said.
Security team members involved in the training don't fire blanks and use guns that clearly aren't real, Mayer said.
Local police were directing traffic away from the base, which is Ohio's largest single-site employer with more than 27,000 civilian employees and military personnel.
The base's commander, Col. Thomas Sherman, said security forces stopped their training exercise and responded to the hospital after the 911 call. After security searched the hospital, which had been on lockdown, they determined there had been no active shooter.
"I wouldn't say anything went wrong in this case," Sherman said, adding that there will be an investigation into the entire response.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol and local police also had officers at the base.
The base was the site where the Dayton Peace Accords were finalized in 1995, an international peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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