By Julia LeDoux
Special to the Belvoir Eagle
Thursday, August 23, 2012

Fort Belvoir’s gates closed and re-opened just as quickly Tuesday morning as the installation responded to a report of a possible gunman at the installation’s hospital.

Officials quickly determined there was no actual threat.

Fort Belvoir Community Hospital spokesman Chris Walz said the incident began unfolding around 9:30 a.m., when security cameras captured a patient entering the hospital with what appeared to be a weapon that looked like a shotgun.

“A patient came into the hospital for a scheduled physical therapy appointment,” Walz explained. “The dummy rifle was to be used as a physical therapy tool because its shape and weight closely resembled that of an actual rifle, which the patient handles frequently while performing his duties. All patients and staff that were in the immediate vicinity of the patient were not alarmed since it was easy to distinguish that the dummy rifle was not real.”

Hospital security personnel located the patient and quickly determined that the weapon posed no threat. Walz said the patient, who is a servicemember, was actually carrying a dummy rifle to the appointment so medical staff could see how he responded to holding and carrying it.

“The situation was not an ordinary occurrence at the hospital and therefore raised suspicion. Situational awareness calls for all of us to report the unusual,” said Don Dees, Chief of Information Strategy, Fort Belvoir Public Affairs Office. “Appropriate measures were taken and the event was resolved with no one harmed.”

The incident was resolved so quickly that Belvoir officials had no time to put out an official notification that the gates had been closed.

“This illustrates that the safeguards in place to protect us worked as designed,” Dees added.

Members of the Fort Belvoir Facebook page commented about the incident with praise for the quick response.

“Great job Belvoir for acting swiftly and assuring everyone’s safety,” said Joetta Wade. “No matter what the results turn out to be, you did a fantastic job protecting the Soldiers, their Families, retirees, and the civilians on the base. Great job, I applaud you all. If it had been something real, you would have saved my 17-month-old who is at the South Post Child Development Center right now. Thank you, because I know you all don’t hear it enough.”

The post and everyone on it should remain vigilant. In the event of suspicious activity, alert Belvoir Police at 911, (703) 806-3105 or for non-emergencies, (703) 806-3787.