The University of Colorado-Boulder campus appeared to fall victim to a swatting incident Monday night. But, it wasn’t the only campus affected.
A string of alleged swatting incidents have hit college campuses across the country as students returned to classes for the new academic year. The hoax calls about active shooters on college campuses — some featuring gunshots sounding in the background — have sent waves of fear among students around the nation as the school year begins.
“The FBI is seeing an increase in swatting events across the country, and we take potential hoax threats very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk,” Vikki Migoya, public affairs officer at the FBI’s Denver division, told CPR News. “Knowingly providing false information to emergency service agencies about a possible threat to life drains law enforcement resources, costs thousands of dollars, and, most importantly, puts innocent people at risk.”
The calls prompted universities to issue texts to “run, hide, fight.” Students and teachers rushed for cover, often cowering in classrooms and under desks for safety. Officers swarmed over campuses, seeking out any threat.
The FBI defines swatting as a malicious tactic of making hoax calls or reports to emergency services, typically feigning an immediate threat to life. It’s intended to draw a large response from SWAT teams and other law enforcement resources to an unsuspecting victim’s location, causing chaos and the potential for injury or violence.
The CU Boulder incident created a tense situation around the state. According to a statement from CU-Boulder, emergency services received a report from an individual who claimed to be at Sewall Hall and heard gunshots coming from the direction of Norlin Library shortly before 5 p.m.
A shelter-in-place order was issued for Norlin Library, Sewall Hall, and all of Main Campus. All affected buildings were searched and cleared by 8:15 p.m. The university said there will be increased visibility of CUPD officers at residence halls and Norlin Library in the upcoming days as officials investigate. CUPD is working with state and federal agencies, including the FBI, “to explore any potential leads or patterns that may be connected to other recent swatting cases across the country,” the department told CPR News.
Boulder wasn’t alone
On Monday alone, law enforcement responded to calls claiming active shooters at Arkansas, Northern Arizona University, Iowa State, Kansas State, and the University of New Hampshire. More calls were made Tuesday at the University of Kentucky, West Virginia University, and Central Georgia Technical College.
Villanova University near Philadelphia experienced two alleged swatting incidents over the last six days. Last Thursday, the school issued an active shooter alert telling students to stay clear of the Law School. A false second active-shoot call occurred Monday — the same day as Boulder — affecting Austin Hall, a student residence.
Students were attending Thursday's Orientation Mass when law enforcement received multiple calls about a man opening fire on campus with an AR-15-style weapon. Sounds of gunfire could be heard in the background of the calls.
Chairs banged together and bags dropped as students fled, recalled Ryan Scanlon, who was in eighth grade at a neighboring school when the mass shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.
Now a Villanova senior, he joined others sheltering in the school library, waiting with little news for about an hour before police arrived to clear out buildings.
“It’s really not funny,” Scanlon said. “If you experience that real thing, you never know what can happen next.”
Hours earlier, at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, the Hamilton County 911 Emergency Communications District also received a call on Sunday that they were in the UTC library and saw a suspect who was a white male carrying an AR-15. The caller indicated “four (people) shot.” The dispatcher noted hearing two gunshots during the call.
“This incident was a criminal act, intended to be disruptive and cause chaos,” the school said in a statement.
At the University of Arkansas, Miceala Morano scrambled for cover behind a green screen in the broadcast room after she received a campuswide alert about an active shooter in the area of Mullins Library.
As officers outside donned bulletproof vests and searched for an intruder, the 21-year-old journalism student called her grandmother, telling her, “As of right now, I’m safe. I love you."
Classes were cancelled. That the threat turned out to be false doesn't much matter in the moment for terrified students.
“There’s just these few minutes where all you really feel is fear, whether the threat’s there or not,” said Morano, whose childhood active shooter drills taught her to stack chairs blocking the classroom door and to climb into the ceiling as a last resort.
The University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC, received two separate calls on Sunday that there was an active shooter at the Thomas Cooper Library. The school said both calls were initiated by an unknown male and included a background noise that mimicked gunfire.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said authorities must find whoever was behind the calls, comparing them to yelling "fire" in a crowded theater.
“It could have been a lot worse than it was. Maybe next time it will be worse,” McMaster told reporters.
Swatting causes terror
The goal of swatting is to get authorities, particularly a SWAT team, to respond to an address.
In an era of mass shootings, the calls create a climate of fear, sap law enforcement resources and can lead to deadly mistakes. In 2017, for instance, a police officer in Wichita, Kansas, shot and killed a man while responding to a hoax emergency call.
The FBI provided no information about a motive but said Tuesday that it was working with law enforcement on the swatting cases on college campuses, which come as such false reports surge nationwide.
A wave of threats three years ago was believed to have come from outside the country, the FBI said at the time. The agency provided few details about the recent campus threats, including whether they are coordinated, but the calls appear to share similar traits.
Most involved multiple calls about an active shooter or shooting, and at least four included the sound of gunshots in the background.
Fred Posner, a telephoning consultant at LOD.com, said advances in technology have made it easier for people making such swatting calls to conceal their identities. Posner said law enforcement also faces the challenge of how easy phone carriers have made it for people to obtain a number.
“The only way for this to stop is to have some sort of enforcement and crackdown against the carriers that continually allow this to occur,” Posner said.
Experts fear hoaxes may make students dismiss warnings
In June 2023, Gov. Jared Polis signed SB23-249, the False Reporting of Emergency Act, to address swatting.
The bill adds to the Victim Rights Act, which includes the false reporting of an emergency that is bias motivated. The act of false reporting of a mass shooting or active shooter in a public or private place is classified as a class 6 felony, while the false reporting of an emergency is a class 1 misdemeanor.
At the federal level, swatting violates several specific crimes under False Information and Hoaxes, fraud and related activity in connection with computers, and Interstate Threatening Communication.
The worry is that hoaxes will create complacency at campuses where active shooter alerts and drills have become a regular part of life.
“We live in tornado alley, where people go hear a tornado warning and go outside to look,” said Mya Norman, a chemistry instructor at Arkansas who hid trembling under her desk as the Fayetteville campus remained on lockdown. “So it does concern me that we could end up with that kind of an effect.”
Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, said campus officials face a “delicate balance” in keeping students and teachers on guard, but not panicked, for any real threats in the future.
For many, he said, panic lingers for weeks and even months after the hoaxes.
Norman is still haunted by what happened. As she tried to reassure her son and husband, her thoughts raced. “It’s kind of rotten, but in some ways I thought, ‘Well, it’s our turn,’” she said.
Casey Mann, a 19-year-old who joined Morano in hiding behind a green screen, said she couldn’t sleep until 2 a.m. after the Arkansas lockdown.
“It’s just a scary reality of the time we’re living in right now,” she said, her voice choking up. “It just makes me wonder what we’re supposed to expect in the future.”
The AP’s Andrew Demillo and Heather Hillingworth contributed reporting.
