Fort Hood: Reports of Active Shooter Are False

FORT HOOD, TX – U.S. Army officials at Fort Hood say there was no active shooter at the post on Thursday morning, despite several rumors of such circulating on social media.

“Rumors of an active shooter on Fort Hood are false; no shots were fired,” said Tom Rheinlander, the director of public affairs at Fort Hood.

Rheinlander said, "an active duty soldier made homicidal threats toward his leadership and is currently in custody by Fort Hood law enforcement officers.”

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The apparent false alarm forced an elementary school in the area to go into lockdown around 10:35 a.m. this morning, however a short while later the Killeen Independent School District announced in a tweet that they were told the situation was a false alarm and all students were safe.

The school district said the forced lockdown was done “out of an abundance of caution.”

Several tweets about an active shooter were posted around 10:30 a.m this morning as multiple people said they were sheltering in place immediately on the post. 

However, KWKT in Waco reported that a malfunctioning system alarm may have contributed to the incident. That station’s reporting said the school district confirmed the occurrence with local U.S. Army officials.