AUSTIN, Texas — First responders are starting to stand down after Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) on Friday afternoon reported a "critical incident" at 11113 Research Blvd. service road northbound, or Ascension Seton Northwest Hospital.
The Austin Police Department responded after receiving a call about shots being fired in the emergency room around 12:30 p.m. APD said officers arrived on the scene and responded as an active-shooter event as a precaution.
Police said the hospital was placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure and that some people were evacuated.
Authorities then cleared floors and secured the scene, saying there was no shooting or shots fired, no injuries and no suspects. APD said someone in the emergency room heard a noise they thought were gunshots and called authorities.
The source of the noise has not been identified at this time.
ATCEMS first reported the incident around 12:53 p.m. At that time, five ambulances, five commanders and multiple single-unit response resources were responding to the scene.
By 3:10 p.m., ATCEMS said it was scaling down the number of its units on scene. Around 3:45 p.m., police confirmed the scene is now secure and safe.
"This is the entire reason that we train as hard as we do. Today was best-case scenario," said ATCEMS Captain Christa Stedman. "We didn't end up with anybody that we needed to transport anywhere. We didn't end up with any fatalities. We didn't even end up with any patients. No one was injured this is the best possible outcome that we could have had."
The Austin Fire Department also responded to the incident and worked alongside APD and ATCEMS.
"Unfortunately, with the reality of what we've been seeing, we see across our nation many times active-attack incidents. This is something that Austin is aware is something that may come to our neighborhood in more prevalence than we've already had happen," AFD Assistant Chief Andre De La Reza said. "It is something that we take, as public safety, very seriously and is something that we've been actively training on for over a year and very intensely fore the past nine months..."
Roadways are expected to reopen soon. The hospital is now back open.
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