https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2024/10/15/mdhhs-to-pay-psychiatric-center-patients-employees-13m-in-settlement/75686112007/

Hospital director Victoria Petti allegedly directed a front desk clerical worker to make an announcement over the PA system saying there were active intruders in the building and to sound genuinely afraid, according to the lawsuit. A second announcement followed, identifying the intruders as two men armed with AR-15s who had fired shots.

These two men were Kennedy and Woodruff, who had been instructed to act as fake intruders during the drill.

The announcements sent children and employees into a panic, believing an active shooter was on the premises, according to the lawsuit. Adults barricaded themselves into places with no windows, stacked heavy furniture against the doors and armed themselves and the children with whatever they could find. Employees texted or called friends and family members, afraid they were going to die, to tell them they loved them.

During the drill, patients and staff panicked and called 911. Because police and dispatchers did not know the threat wasn't real, dispatchers sent 50 emergency response vehicles from state and local agencies and police in riot gear with long guns, to the center.

When Kennedy and Woodruff went out to the kitchen loading dock, they were surrounded by police armed with long guns and rifles who ordered them to open their jackets, lift their shirts, lift their hands into the air and get on the ground. Even though Kennedy and Woodruff identified themselves as employees and said this was a drill, police treated them as criminals, according to the lawsuits.