An unsettling pattern emerged last Friday as students at three separate Georgia universities received chilling alerts of active shooters on their campuses, only to have these threats exposed as cruel hoaxes. In the span of a single evening, the campuses of Clark Atlanta University, the University of Georgia in Athens, and the University of West Georgia in Carrollton fell victims to this disruptive scheme that police and the FBI are now investigating.
The first incident occurred just before 9 p.m. at Clark Atlanta University, where students were sent into a panic with an emergency alert warning of a shooter near their library, as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta. In an effort to quickly address the perceived threat, Atlanta police responded and issued a shelter-in-place order. They conducted a comprehensive search only to find that the claims were baseless. In an alleged call to authorities, perpetrators even played gunshots in the background to lend credence to their false report. After a thorough investigation, the all-clear was given around 11:15 p.m., with officials denouncing the episode as a swatting call—a term that denotes a false report made specifically to provoke a massive emergency response.
Ayanna Jenkins, a student at Clark Atlanta University, told FOX 5 Atlanta, "I was very startled. It scared me." Another student, Miracle Harrison, reflected on the vulnerability of the campus environment, stating, "This is a private university, but it's a public world, and it's a scary world, and it's a scary world at that."
Similarly, the University of Georgia reported a potential shooter at 8:51 p.m. through its emergency messaging system. By 10:39 p.m., police had to confirm the threat as a hoax and gave the all-clear, according to 13WMAZ's sister station WXIA, as detailed in an article from 13WMAZ. Students received an alarming text at the University of West Georgia about a man with a gun near Ingram Library which later also proved to be groundless.
This spree of false alerts comes as part of a worrying nationwide trend. The FBI Atlanta Field Office has picked up on a surge in swatting calls targeting educational institutions across the United States. "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. 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. We work closely with our law enforcement partners to determine their credibility, share information, and take appropriate investigative action. As always, we encourage members of the public to remain vigilant and immediately report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement," said the FBI in a statement obtained by 13WMAZ.
