SARTELL - Some scary moments Tuesday night in Sartell, which fortunately turned out to be a false alarm. Police started to receive 911 calls from residents who thought they had heard gunshots.

Sartell Police Chief Jim Hughes says the calls started coming from the city's south side of some type of automatic weapon being fired.

As officers began searching the area, along with about 22 law enforcement members from the area, we were looking for a vehicle. Over 100 phone calls came in to dispatch.

Hughes says a witness caught video of the vehicle they were looking for while they were driving through the Sartell Walmart parking lot. Police were able to confirm that the sounds they were hearing were actually coming from the vehicle, which had a modified exhaust that was intentionally backfiring.

Hughes says they are in the process of getting additional video from Walmart, and they've been interviewing the two people in the car to find out what their intent was.

I can't say whether or not it was meant to sound like an assault rifle, but if you watch the video that's been posted publicly now, it sounds pretty similar to the sounds from the videos from the Las Vegas shooting.

Hughes hasn't identified the two people but did say they are two adults who are not from Sartell. Besides Sartell, residents in Waite Park, Sauk Rapids, and St. Cloud also called 911 with similar reports Tuesday night.

The incident will eventually be forwarded on to the county attorney's office for possible charges.

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