‘Miscommunication’ led to false reports of shooting at Fort Meade

Miscommunication between real and fake calls from the media on Thursday led to a false report of a shooting at Fort Meade base in Maryland, The Associated Press reported.

Fort Meade’s public affairs officer Chad Jones told the newswire in a statement that the base was conducting a routine exercise on Thursday, and called the crossed wires an “unfortunate miscommunication between the installation and a few media outlets” 

Fort Meade spokesperson Angie Streets also said that a shooting scenario happened during their exercise, according to the AP. 

The base sent out an advisory to officials this week about an exercise called “Capital Shield 21.”

Capital Shield 21 was supposed to test the response of emergency situations under the base’s COVID-19 conditions, asking security and emergency services to respond to incidents in “clearly identified training areas throughout the installation,” the AP reported. 

According to an email, Fort Meade’s Community Relations Chief Sherry Kuiper wrote that a call from an unidentified media outlet went through the base’s Emergency Operations Center, where the exercise was taking place. 

Kuiper addressed that people portraying the media call the base during the exercise, saying it’s unclear why actual media outlets called in the first place, the AP noted.