US gunmen storm children’s psychiatric ward in test drill nobody was told about

Detroit’s state-run Hawthorn Center was the place of an active shooter drill, which terrified staff.

The state of Michigan has paid out US$13 million ($21.3m) in compensation over a “horrifying” active shooter drill at a children’s psychiatric hospital that staff and patients thought was real.

Terrified employees at Detroit’s state-run Hawthorn Center attempted to hide under desks and barricade doors after an intercom announcement that two armed men had entered the building, according to a legal complaint.

In reality, the two “active shooters” were maintenance workers called Hawk Kennedy and Brandon Woodruff, who had been told to walk through the hospital as part of a drill.

Dozens of children and staff are now said to be struggling with “severe post-traumatic stress” following the incident, which took place in December 2022.

The supposed gunmen were unaware that children and staff had not been warned about the drill, while the hospital also failed to inform local law enforcement, according to the lawsuit.

As a result, around 50 heavily armed police and state troopers from multiple jurisdictions took up positions outside the Hawthorn Center as desperate staff called 911.

“People in the Hawthorn Center who were not sure if this was a drill or not, saw the police response assembling outside the building and believed that this was a genuine mass-shooter attack,” the complaint states.

When the workers Woodruff and Kennedy left the building, police armed with automatic weapons and body armour shouted at them to lie on the ground and arrested them.