There's an epidemic of swatting at schools in the US.
AT 1:15 PM on September 15, a man who identified himself as Tom Gomez called Sangamon County Central Dispatch in Illinois to report that two gunmen had shot a dozen students at Springfield High School.
According to audio of the call obtained by WIRED, the man was specific. The caller, breathing heavily, told dispatchers that he was locked inside a math classroom with other students and that the two men, both dressed in blue pants and green jackets, were killing students in the adjacent classroom: room 219.
Within five minutes, Springfield Police were at the high school's second floor, descending on the room where they were told a mass murder had occurred. The problem is that, according to police records, Springfield High doesn’t have a room 219. In fact, there was no shooting at all.
The dangerous hoax call was one of more than 90 false reports of active shooter incidents at US schools made during the second half of September, WIRED found. From
Lincoln High in Dallas, Texas, to
Lincoln High in Des Moines, Iowa;
McArthur High in Hollywood, Florida, to
Hollywood High in Los Angeles, these false reports are part of a disturbing spree of recent
swatting incidents that crisscross the United States. While experts who study violence at schools say that false reports of shootings inspire copycats, state and local law enforcement officials say that many of these swatting attacks seem to stem from a single person or group. ...
https://www.wired.com/story/swatting-schools-us-september-2022/
