BARNESVILLE — A roadside incident that led to a heavy police presence outside of Barnesville sparked an unsubstantiated public panic Wednesday afternoon.

The Barnesville Police Department responded to Ohio 800 north of the village after a witness reported that they saw somebody off the side of the road who was potentially handcuffed with two other males beating on that person.

Barnesville Police Chief Rocky Sirianni said that once that call came over the police scanner, it elicited a response from his department as well as from the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Barnesville Emergency Medical Service was already on another call, so Bethesda EMS was called to the scene.

Belmont County Coroner Amanda Fisher said that her chief investigator, Tim Skinner who is also employed by Barnesville EMS, rushed over to the scene to ensure the alleged victim would receive the care they needed. Due to a coroner’s vehicle being the only available option for him at the time, he raced to the scene in the coroner’s vehicle, which caused passersby to believe a death had occurred.

When area residents saw the coroner’s vehicle at the scene, they flocked to social media to inform friends and family, which induced a mild panic.

“There wasn’t anybody in handcuffs. There was an altercation down there, but It wasn’t nearly as bad as what it sounded like when it first came across. Nobody was seriously injured. There was no death, nothing like that. It was just something that was blown out of proportion, basically, as far as the call compared to what actually happened,” Sirianni said.

“Because of the way that the call came out, you had a lot of other law enforcement responses, the sheriff’s office, state troopers stopped by and the coroner, which is probably why people think that somebody died,” he continued. “So we would have had like six deputies there, so it looked like it was something really bad, but it really wasn’t.”

He added that one person was taken to the hospital, but the transport was due to a mental health emergency not due to any injuries sustained during the incident.

“It was basically just an altercation that stemmed from someone who has mental health issues, and that person went out to the hospital for treatment and a follow up,” Sirianni said.

He added that no arrests were made as a result of the incident.