HAMPSTEAD, N.C. — After a 911 caller's pre-dawn report of gunfire coming from the roof of a North Carolina high school, officials say responding law enforcement officers heard the same noises, but found no shooter, victims or evidence of a shooting.
Capt. James Rowell said at a news conference Friday that once officials learned that a damaged water heater had been making noises, maintenance workers were able to re-create a noise just like gunfire.
Superintendent Steven Hill says a group of cheerleaders who were training before school followed common sense over procedure and fled to a nearby middle school. He says the schools have already lost more than a month of school after Hurricane Florence and they'll try to get the second part of the school day in to get back to normalcy.
Sheriff Carson Smith Jr. stressed that everyone who treated the noises like gunfire "did exactly what they should have."