All clear given after report of shots fired at Art Institute of Atlanta

ATLANTA — Sandy Springs police have given the all clear at the Art Institute of Atlanta after reports of a shooting.

Channel 2's Mike Petchenik was at the scene on Peachtree Dunwoody Road as police officers swarmed the campus.

Police say just after 10:30 a.m. they got a call about shots fired inside the building. Officers went room to room looking for any evidence this was in fact a shooting.

“Anybody that's currently barricaded in the building, they've sheltered in place,” said Forest Bohannon. “Anybody that could get out of the building they've gotten out and officers are in the building right now investigating."

Students said it was a frantic scene.

“We were just told to evacuate when the lights went out and told us to get out as fast as we could,” Erika Castaneda said.

About two hours later, police say they found no evidence of a shooting.

Police Sgt. Forrest Bohannan said they had to treat the situation as if an active shooter were in the building because that’s how the call came in.

Police said power went out at the school around the same time the report of possible shots fired was made. They said the possible popping sound may have been related to the power outage.

“I was in class and I heard some big crash,” Jordan Alexander said.

A Georgia Power spokesman said there was an outage that affected several hundred customers Friday morning.

Nearby North Springs High School was placed on a soft lockdown that has since been lifted.

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