Did Usain Bolt's Win in 100m Cause a Shooting Scare at JFK Airport?

Woah what a night #JFK #jfkairport pic.twitter.com/bhPEeixIho
— Zack Young (@ThisIsZackYoung) August 15, 2016

Usain Bolt won the 100m last night in Rio and became the only sprinter to ever win the event in three consecutive Olympics. He also may have become the only person to shut down an airport due to excessive celebration. John F. Kennedy airport in New York City was under lockdown for over four hours last night, beginning roughly when Bolt crossed the finish line. The prevailing story goes: a person mistook crowds clapping for and celebrating the victory as some kind of panicked disturbance and mistakenly called 911. Then things really got out of hand.

By the time police responded at 9:34 p.m. Sunday, they were receiving report of "shots fired," prompting a shutdown of one of the world's busiest airports.

There were no injuries during the incident, according to police.

Operations at the airport didn't resume until 12:45 a.m. today after police had given the all-clear, finding no evidence of gunshots.

Police scanned every corner of the busy Terminal 8, looking for evidence of foul play but could not turn up a gun, bullets, or a victim. The panic then spread to Terminal 1, which was also shut down and searched. Eventually the NYPD re-opened the terminals and reported that "no shots were fired."

The Bolt connection seems to be premised on the coincidental timing and some thin anonymous sourcing, so it's hard to tell if this is actually what happened, or if it is the beginnings of an urban legend that Snopes will be debunking in a few months.

Here's more from the New York Post:

A source confirmed to The Post that people "cheering and banging" as they watched the Olympic Games may have been mistaken for the sounds of gunshots.

"There were people cheering and possibly a glass got knocked over and all hell broke loose," another source said.

The Post also spoke with a witness there who claimed the Bolt Theory was "poppycock" because he heard what sounded like four or five gunshots—"loud…perhaps blanks, or from a tape"—and the televisions near him were showing CNN. Still, the Post spoke to "a law enforcement source" who said "there is no indication that blanks were fired."

There is also video floating around where you can hear some loud bangs that sound like they could be gunshots, but police have also shut that theory down, claiming the video was taken after the terminal was beginning to be cleared.