CENTRAL, Texas — The alert heard around the state has many Texans going to social media to share their thoughts on the unexpected notification. The emergency alert, more formally known as a blue alert, gathered a lot of reactions from many people.
Alerts like these are supposed to be sent out between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m., so what made this one the exception? The urgency of the situation is what made this different.
Memphis, Texas Police Chief Rex Plant was allegedly shot by Seth Altman. Plant is now in stable condition, but Altman is reportedly still on the run.
6 News spoke to Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Bryan Washko about how residents here in Central Texas can help officers when it comes to emergency alerts.
"You know that if it was your child, if it was your loved one, your elderly grandparent or a family member that was clearly in danger, you definitely would want the 32 million Texans to give you a hand in looking out for those people," Washko told 6 News. "Try to remember the first three characters [of the license plate] because you got to think these people that are out there are passing tens of thousands of people on our highway, and it just takes that one person who remembered."
Although most people were asleep, for some who already have an unusual sleep schedule, it even shocked them.
"[The emergency alarm] caught us off guard," said new father Matthew Calhoun. "We thought it was our alarm but we're waking up in the middle of the night here and there anyway. So we really didn't know what time it was...but yeah, it's quite shocking when it's in the middle of the night and when you're not awake, you're probably not gonna do much about it"
Washko knows that alarms like this can be annoying but wants to remind everyone that there are ways they can help law enforcement.
Now, what everyone wants to know, how to turn off the alarm. Here are the steps:
Androids:
Settings>Notifications>Wireless emergency alerts>turn off
iPhones:
Settings>Notifications>scroll to emergency alerts>turn off emergency alerts
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