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Shelter-in-place alert mistakenly issued to all of Hennepin County

Robbinsdale incident triggers shelter-in-place alert accidentally sent to whole county
Robbinsdale incident triggers shelter-in-place alert accidentally sent to whole county 01:00

ROBBINSDALE, Minn. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office says a shelter-in-place alert was mistakenly sent to the entire county late Monday evening.

Around 7:30 p.m., residents of Hennepin County received a message instructing them to shelter in place due to police activity in Robbinsdale.

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Now, the sheriff's office is saying the alert was intended only for a one-block radius in Robbinsdale. 

The Robbinsdale Police Department says officers were called to the 3600 block of West Broadway Avenue on a report of a possible armed domestic situation.

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Joe Alvarado

Three people were located and detained, police say. Cross information on additional suspects prompted police to issue the shelter-in-place order, as is standard procedure.

Residents on the 3600 block of West Broadway Avenue were asked to shelter in place until about 10:30 p.m., the sheriff's office said.

The people involved suffered minor injuries.

The sheriff's office said "human error" was to blame for the for the unnecessarily widespread alert, and that it has "identified the step in the alert process that resulted in the mistake" and "plans to contact the software developer with a suggested fix to make this type of error less likely."

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