Michigan paying $13M after shooter drill terrified psychiatric hospital for kids

DETROIT — A judge has approved a $13 million settlement in a lawsuit over an unannounced active shooter drill at a Michigan psychiatric hospital for children, an event that terrified kids and staff and caused them to scramble for cover, text family and urgently call 911.

Someone at the front desk declared through a speaker system that two armed men were inside the state-run Hawthorn Center in suburban Detroit and that shots were fired, attorney Robin Wagner said.

It wasn’t true, but the message on Dec. 21, 2022, set off a frenzy.

“It was horrifying,” Wagner said Tuesday.

“Everyone went into, ‘Oh my God. This is the worst day of my life,’ ” she said. “People were hiding under their desks. They were barricading the doors, trying to figure out how to protect the children.”

Fifty children at the hospital each will receive roughly $60,000. Among staff, 90 people will receive an average of more than $50,000, depending on their score on a trauma exam, Wagner said. Two dozen others will get smaller amounts.

“The state recognized that this was really a bad decision and harmed a lot of people,” she said of the drill.

Police apparently didn’t know anything about a drill. Dozens of officers responding to 911 calls showed up at Hawthorn Center with body armor and high-powered weapons, anticipating the worst.

Two people who were told to pose as shooters were captured, Wagner said. They were not armed.

Court of Claims Judge James Redford approved the settlement on Oct. 4, records show. More than $3 million will go to attorneys in the case.

The state Department of Health and Human Services “felt it was in the best interest of all involved parties to settle this matter,” spokesperson Lynn Sutfin said Tuesday.

“We regret that our patients, staff and community were negatively affected by the unfortunate incident in December 2022,” she said.

Wagner said the drill was organized by the Hawthorn Center’s safety director, who still works for the state. The hospital was subsequently closed for reasons unrelated to what happened.