A ‘shelter in place’ was ordered on Saturday amid fears of an active threat in the area of 2495 S Vine Street in Denver, which is a 13 minute walk (0.6 miles or about 1 kilometer) from Denver University.
“Just got this DPD emergency alert for an active threat and shelter-in-place at Denver University,” a person wrote on X, sharing a screenshot of the alert.
The alert was shared by several other users on X as well.
Denver University campus safety noted there was no immediate threat to the institution. They wrote on X “There is no active threat to DU. Stay away from doors and windows until Shelter in place has been lifted.”
No official word has come from Denver Police Department yet. It remains unknown if anyone has been injured in the incident.
The Denver Public Safety Department said on X, “A wireless emergency alert (WEA) was sent to a broader area than intended for an incident at 2495 S. Vine Street. The shelter-in-place alert applies only to a two-block radius around that address and recipients outside that area should disregard the alert.”
Reactions to shelter-in-place message
The shelter-in-place message by shared by other profiles as well. One person remarked “Denver emergency alert for an active threat near DU.” Another tagged Denver Police on X to ask what was happening. There have been no replies to the post.
Yet another person voiced fears of an active shooter, writing “Shelter in place alert near 2495 S Vine St., Denver. ‘Stay away from windows and doors’. Active shooters south of University of Denver?”.
Another person added, “Denver has just sent out an Emergency Alert to all mobile phones (at least by union station downtown) telling everyone to stay in doors and away from windows.”
On Facebook, one person shared their frustration, while commenting on the shelter-in-place that was issued. “Denver is turning into downtown Chicago. We have shooting weekly now. Glad I don’t live in Denver,” they said, adding that they lived 10 miles away from S Vine Street and had almost gotten a ‘heart attack’ seeing the shelter-in-place message.
Several people also expressed outrage at the lack of updates from the Denver Police department. One person tagged them and said “how you gonna send out a cryptic emergency alert and then not post anything on x like it says.” Another added, “ya’ll sent this to pretty much the entire city of Denver and have some sort of responsibility to explain what’s happening or if it was an error.”
The emergency message comes on the same day as the Denver Broncos game against Buffalo Bills, which they won 33-30. A person remarked on the same, saying “People are worried and we had not one, but TWO professional sports games today, so people are hyped.”
