Multiple Minnesota Schools See Fake Active Shooting Calls
St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News)- The BCA Minnesota Fusion Center is monitoring the latest round of 911 calls that falsely describe an active school shooting.
A news release says dispatchers across the state have received at least eight hoax school shooting calls over the past two days. One of the calls reported a fake active shooting at an elementary school in Austin on Monday, causing the building to go into a lockdown until law enforcement determined a shooting was not taking place.
Officials say the calls appear to be coming from the same individual who is using a voiceover IP. The dispatcher in the hoax Austin shooting call said they also heard what appeared to have sounded like gunshots when the 911 call came in Monday morning.
The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office in northeast Minnesota said several false shooting calls were placed to police departments and media outlets in the county around noon on Tuesday. Officials say the false calls were also reported in Albert Lea, Crookston, Bemidji, Alexandria, Brainerd over the past two days.
The fake calls are also known as “Swatting,” which is a person placing a false emergency call to draw a large law enforcement response to a specific location.
The BCA says the Minnesota Fusion Center has alerted law enforcement across the state to the situation. Officials reported 27 hoax shooting calls in Minnesota last year, 17 of which were placed on September 17 at schools across the state including Rochester Lourdes.
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