Authorities Probe Reports Of Shots Fired At Houston Hospital

HOUSTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The police chief in Houston says no one has been found injured and there's no evidence of a shooting amid reports of gunfire inside the hospital at the Texas Medical Center.

Chief Art Acevedo says his officers were making a second search of Ben Taub Hospital, one of the city's major trauma centers.

Police began receiving reports of gunfire shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Dozens of officers and SWAT team members are at the hospital.

"Once the alarm went off, the code that the hospital has for an active shooter, folks started immediately evacuating the hospitals and some sheltered in place which is part of the protocols," said Acevedo.

Television images from helicopters showed dozens of employees leaving the hospital, some of them attending to patients who appeared to have been evacuated on gurneys or in wheelchairs.

As CBS2's Dick Brennan reports, officers are busy debriefing witnesses, some who describe the suspect as a white male of unknown age who's bald -- but when asked if anyone saw a gunman, police say they have no evidence of that.

The hospital has nearly 500 beds and its trauma center treats more than 100,000 emergency patients each year.

At this time it is unclear whether or not Tuesday's incident was a false alarm.

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