They're Shooting at Us': Police Lock Down Christian School Over Report of Gunfight, Surprised to Find Staff Playing With...

Emergency responders rushed to a Cleveland-area Christian school and put it on lockdown after getting a report of a gunfight Wednesday.

Indeed there was a gunfight during the first day of classes at Open Door Christian School and Church in Elyria, Ohio...a Nerf gunfight.

“Thank goodness it was not real,” Elyria Police Capt. Chris Costantino told the Morning Journal. “Some of the staff were doing something with Nerf guns. They were just messing around with them, nothing serious.”

Police in Ohio rushed to the Open Door Christian School Wednesday after a Nerf gunfight was misinterpreted as an actual shooting. (Image via: Facebook)

“It’s unfortunate, though, that we had to take it as seriously as we did. The way things are today, when a call of a school shooting comes in, you can’t think that it might be a prank. Anything can happen," he said.

The Nerf "N-Strike Stampede ECS" blaster. (Credit: Business Wire)

It turns out a church secretary's daughter called 911 after misinterpreting a phone message her mother left about the toy gunfight, the Associated Press reported.

“Somewhere along the line in that call the secretary said something along the lines of ‘They’re shooting at us,’” Costantino told the Morning Journal.

“It’s an unfortunate series of events, but the girl did nothing wrong,” Costantino said. “She was trying to help out and report something that could have been very serious. She did the right thing given what she knew.”

The response stunned staff at the school, which resumed classes after a 15-minute lockdown, the AP reported.

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