Reports of gunfire in Great Falls caused a lot of anxiety and had police officers investigating on Tuesday afternoon.
The reports, which began circulating online just after 2 p.m., resulted in "shelter in place" procedures being implemented at Great Falls High School, Our Lady Of Lourdes school, and Longfellow Elementary School.
There were no reports that any of the as-yet unconfirmed gunshots happened in any of the schools, and there are no reports of any injuries.
The Great Falls Police Department posted the following message on Facebook at 2:58 p.m.
We are investigating reports of shots fired near Great Falls High School. GFHS, Our Lady of Lourdes, and Longfellow Elementary are in Shelter In Place and we will assist school staff as they release children soon. There are no reported injuries and nothing has occurred inside either of the schools. Please avoid the area and follow instructions from any law enforcement officer.
Jatarus Allen lives near Longfellow, and he said, "I heard three gun shots. One was a loud ‘pow’ and and the second sounded like pistols. Like pow-pow..so it was like pow, then pow pow."
Allen continued, "Basically, what in the world is going on? I mean there are kids running around playing. I just want everybody to be safe, a safe neighborhood, not anywhere where you have gunshots. I’m just trying to work. You never know, one of them stray bullets could have came here, so…"
Mariah Nunnally, a ninth-grade student, said, "All my friends were texting me that there was cops with shotguns outside the window and so I was sitting there freaking out. Kids were making jokes about it but like I was just scared because I didn’t know where my brother was."
Mariah’s mother Courtney said she immediately thought, "’Oh my gosh, it is a bomb or is it a shooting?’ You know, there has been a a lot of shootings lately so that was the first thing that came to my mind."
As of 5:30 p.m., the GFPD has not publicly stated whether or not they have confirmed that any shots were fired, nor whether anyone has been taken into custody in connection with the incident.
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