Active Shooter Alert Turns Out to Be Typo After Police Respond to Scene

The autocorrect feature has been known to ruin many a text message, but rarely has it triggered a SWAT team response.

On March 18, police officers surrounded Nova Place, a development on the north side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in response to "reports of a possible active shooter by a third party caller," a police blotter said.

In addition to Pittsburgh police, firefighters and EMS, the SWAT team was called in as a precaution to secure the area.

Local outlets reported that workers and guests were evacuated from the development, while the Pittsburgh Public School District confirmed that nearby elementary schools including King Pre-K-8 and Allegheny Pre-K-5 were placed on lockdown. Police said Manchester Academy Charter School was also secured.

The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group, has recorded 9,464 deaths from gun violence (including homicide, suicide and unintentional deaths) and 109 mass shootings in the United States this year. In 2021, the group reported a total of 44,951 gun violence deaths.

But in this case, the active shooter alert was a false alarm.

Maurice Matthews, public information officer for the Pittsburgh police, told Newsweek that the misunderstanding stemmed from an autocorrected text.

"The intended text 'Fire Alarm' was sent as 'Firearm' to a 3rd party person off site," he said. "After sending 'firearm' the person did not respond to their phone, which made the receiver dial 911 believing there was immediate danger in the area."

After two hours of searching the vicinity, police determined it was safe and confirmed there was no evidence of a shooter.

There are many cases of active shooter reports turning out to be false. In 2019, an alert was triggered at the University of Michigan when people mistook the sounds of a sorority's team-building exercise, which involved popping balloons and women screaming, for a gunfire attack. Police received a flood of calls about the incident. The active shooter alert was issued while others were holding a campus vigil for the dozens of Muslims killed in shootings at two mosques in New Zealand.

The FBI has posted training videos with tactics for civilians to protect themselves during an active shooter attack. The three advised responses are "run" (to quickly and cautiously escape), "hide" (if there is no safe escape route) and "fight" (as a last resort, using available objects as improvised weapons and employing teamwork to surprise and ambush the shooter).