The words "active shooter at Brock University" popped up on cell phones across Niagara last night sparking panic across the region.
To read out latest story on the incident, click here.
We now know that there wasn't an active shooter at the St. Catharines University campus, but a pellet gun may have been used in the targeted attack.
The question of what went wrong, and how do we avoid this from happening again is being debated today.
Niagara 411, which is operated by a local resident and followed by thousands of residents was the first to send out on social media that there was an "unconfirmed active shooter."
The post was seen by thousands of people before police were even on-the-scene.
The operator of Niagara 411, Nick, says he is a non-profit operation that is just trying to help residents.
He tells us that he posted the information after hearing from "his sources and witnesses on scene."
Nick says he has radios that can be used but they were of no use last night as NRP is not accessible on radio systems and the only other info he was able to get from radios was patient status, but it had nothing to do with what was posted.
His full statement of last evening's events is posted below.
Reporter from the St. Catharines Standard Grant LaFleche taking to Twitter saying:
We asked Niagara Regional Police about how the incident unfolded and they replied
"in dynamic incidents like the event our officers attended last evening, misinformation and speculation can exacerbate the community's fear of crime and/or our officers and the community's personal safety. In this case, misleading information was reported. In particular, it was being reported that there was an 'active shooter.' This type of misinformation spreads quickly and causes unnecessary panic and alarm within the community. In incidents such as the one we saw at Brock last evening, we urge the public and the media to get their information from an official source, such as the police. We also encourage everyone not to disseminate unreliable information."
NRPS Police Chief Bryan MacCulloch thanks first responders for their work in such a chaotic situation:
Niagara411/Nick's statment:
I had already packed it in yesterday when I start receiving multiple calls, emails, DM’s and texts from witnesses on scene at Brock university around 8pm.
I checked with multiple sources and five witnesses that had called in from the scene and I even spoke with one of the 911 callers who stated a gun was shown and they were reporting people shot and the shooters location was unknown.
My initial post stated there was an ongoing unknown issue at Brock university with police responding (as I was trying to confirm). The second post came 5-10 min later and at that time i had an update from Police sources, witnesses and other media partners of a possible shooting. My post now was clear and stated that there were UNCONFIRMED reports of an Active shooter and that I was working on gathering more information.
I then made multiple additional calls and texts to many other sources. It was at this point it was changed by police to a stabbing and not and active shooter situation. I immediately corrected ALL of my posts to include the proper information.
It’s a very difficult situation to manage as i couldn’t possibly answer all the phone, texts, emails and DM’s fast enough and I had to provide the most current info I had at the time it was available.
Before I had even put out the first post, multiple people had already posted about a shooting at Brock on my page in the Visitor post section so I was also dealing with that and trying to speak to as many folks as possible.
The main issue was in the heat of the moment all indications from police, witnesses and other media partners was that it was a active shooter situation with three people injured and all the witnesses on scene corroborated the information, so it was at that point I made the decision to post what I had.
The main purpose of the site is to provide the folks of Niagara with real-time information to try and keep them safe and informed at the same time. For me there is no need to be first out with information / news as i am a non-profit site. I do this sheerly out of my love for Niagara and it’s people. I always try to get the info out as quick as possible to keep everyone informed and safe. I also try to keep the info as accurate as possible to try and dispel other online stories that may have gotten out of hand. Like everything else, there is always a chance for error, i make ever effort to avoid them but they do occur. I truly don’t believe anything went wrong last night as we were only reporting on what was given to us by witnesses and sources. The folks I spoke to on scene thought the gun was very real and during such a horrific scene It would be very difficult for them to tell otherwise.
They were all extremely scared and it was a horrible situation. We should all focus on catching the culprits rather than ostracizing the folks that were just trying to help.