BOSTON (WHDH) - Wentworth Institute of Technology and Mass. College of Art and Design were both on lockdown, both campuses tweeted, in response to a reported gun that was later confirmed to be fake, per the Boston Police Department.
“If you are on campus, please stay where you are, lock doors and wait for ALL-CLEAR message,” both campuses had said earlier at 2 p.m.
Boston Police swarmed the area to investigate, surveying the schools before several students were able to approach officers with news that the reports of a weapon on campus may have been the result of a Halloween-themed photoshoot, complete with fake weaponry.
“We came back and we hollered over to one of the cops that were closest just to get their attention.” student Ahavah Birch said. “We needed to clarify.”
“We yelled that we think it’s one of our friends ’cause they were doing a Halloween photoshoot, and we compared the pictures to each other,” Kenny Cassidy, another student, said. “It looked exactly alike.”
Police cleared the scene after confirming the information, leading to the lockdowns being lifted.
Showing a photo of their friend’s costume with 7NEWS, the student appeared to be dressed as the comic book character “Red Hood,” complete with the red Batman logo on the costume’s shirt and other recognizable features of the character.
The friends said they were grateful that despite the misunderstanding, no one was hurt.
“Take all the precautions we can – that’s why we left, we didn’t want to be close and then the second we realized (what was happening on campus), we were like, ‘oh no, we need to tell them so that it doesn’t get out of hand,” Birch said.
“Be careful with your Halloween costume,” Cassidy said.
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