RICHMOND, Va. – Hundreds of patients daily walk through the doors of the McGuire VA Medical Center on Broad Rock Blvd. On Tuesday, visiting patients and staff received notice there was a gunman on the loose; but it turned to be a big misunderstanding.
“We seen blue lights flashing and police coming from everywhere and then they got out with shields and assault rifles," said veteran Jerome Barnes.
An email alert was sent to the hospital, about an armed gunman on site, called a Code Silver.
"Essentially it said that there was an active threat and that you were to initiate safety precautions, which are basically to shelter in place," said Darlene Edwards, McGuire VA Medical Center Public Affairs Officer.
"People were running out, I was at the eye clinic and they were asking everybody to leave and everybody came out and when they told us it was all clear we were ready to go back in and that's when about a good 15 cops pull up," Barnes said.
After about 15 minutes of panic and confusion, the hospital learned that the active threat notification was actually a false alarm.
A spokesman for the Department of Veteran Affairs said that a training exercise in the veteran affairs’ notification system in Hampton accidentally sent an active shooter email to its employees.
The email was received at several locations nationwide, such as Denver and Milwaukee.
"It was a glitch in the system and it was initiated off campus and there was no active threat at anytime," Edwards said. “And it's that glitch that the department of veteran affairs will now need to address in their investigation.”
“Certainly that'll be looked at and all of the pieces that going into this will be evaluated so in the future that's not an issue," Edwards added.
During the time of the active threat the Medical Center was not placed on lockdown.
However their “shelter in place” procedure does require them to lock certain doors.
The center did continue services after they received the all-clear notice.
