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A woman arguing with a man near University Medical Center’s emergency room Thursday morning tried to shoot him but instead struck two bystanders who were trying to check into the hospital, New Orleans police.

New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said the woman was arrested and the two shooting victims are expected to survive their wounds. But in the chaotic moments after the shooting, police received reports of an active shooter at the hospital, and officials placed the facility on lockdown for about an hour.

Aubrey Edwards, who volunteers in the ER as a medical advocate for sexual assault survivors, said she was receiving a coronavirus vaccination there Thursday when a nurse got a telephone call and started repeating, “There’s an active shooter.”

The nurse led a group of about 20 people, including Edwards, into a closet to seek cover. Doctors, nurses and volunteers began frantically texting on their phones to try to find out information about what was going on or to contact loved ones, Edwards said.

“You could tell some people were super distressed and freaked out,” Edwards recalled.

Ferguson said the lockdown of the hospital, in the 2000 block of Canal Street, was lifted early Thursday afternoon. He said officers quickly detained both the woman and the man for questioning, and soon realized the shooting resulted from a domestic dispute.

Ferguson said a couple was arguing when the shooting occurred about 11:25 a.m. near UMC’s ER ramp. The woman grabbed a gun and shot several times at the man with whom she was bickering, but missed, Ferguson said.

But the bullets hit a 55-year-old man in the left shoulder and a 55-year-old woman in her right hip, Ferguson said. Neither victim’s injuries are thought to be life-threatening, Ferguson said.

Police said the wounded man was inside the emergency room’s lobby and was struck by gunfire that penetrated the ER’s glass doors. The wounded woman was outside the ER, police said. The victims were trying to check into the hospital as patients, according to Ferguson.

A UMC spokesperson issued a statement saying the argument that sparked the shooting “began off campus.” The statement added that no hospital employees or patients were intended targets of the shooting.

Only the woman at the center of the argument will be booked in the shooting, Ferguson said.

Edwards said the group she was with remained in the closet for around seven minutes before the nurse who had led them there got another telephone call saying it was safe to come out, Edwards said. 

“When she released us, everyone booked it” out of there, Edwards added.