No active shooter found after lockdown at U.S. Army post in Alabama
HUNTSVILLE, AL (WKRG) — Officials have confirmed there was no active shooter at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville.
The commander of an Alabama military post says two 911 calls about a potential active shooter prompted a lockdown at the installation but no shooter was ever found and no shots were fired.
Col. Tom Holliday, the garrison commander at Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, said Tuesday afternoon that the 911 calls came from a building on the installation. He says the lockdown worked as planned and believes that the military post did not overreact.
He says there will be an investigation and officials are looking into the possibility of a hoax.
An active shooter drill planned for Wednesday will not be held.
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A lockdown has been lifted at an Alabama military installation, though officials say they are still investigating a possible active shooter incident there.
Christopher Colster, a spokesman for Redstone Arsenal in Hunstville, said Tuesday that officials do not believe there is an ongoing threat. No injuries or arrests have been reported.
Colster says a training exercise was ongoing that was supposed to end Wednesday. Officials had said on Facebook that an active shooter training exercise was planned for this week. But Colster would not say whether the active shooter report was part of that exercise, adding: “I really can’t say at this point what happened. I’m not sure myself.”
UPDATE (12:40 p.m.) – News 5 affiliate, WZDX, is reporting that the gates to Redstone Arsenal are once again open after the lockdown was issued Tuesday morning. At this time, there is no new information about the possible active shooter.
The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, which is located inside Redstone Arsenal, tweeted Tuesday afternoon that the lockdown had been lifted:
MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) – A possible active shooter forced Redstone Arsenal, a U.S. Army Post, to go into lockdown Tuesday morning.
According to a tweet from the base, there is a possible active shooter on the arsenal. No other information about the incident was made available.
An employee on the base tells News Five that he and coworkers are bunkered inside an office in the facility. He said the base sent out an email to all employees that this is not a drill. He also said Redstone Arsenal was scheduled to hold active shooter training this week.
Redstone Arsenal is located in Madison County, Ala., which is south of Huntsville near the Huntsville International Airport.
Close to 40,000 people work on the base in Huntsville.
News Five is working to gather more information and will post an update when available.
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