Fake calls of shooter made to 17 high schools, Kansas Bureau of Investigation says

Kansas’ top law enforcement agency released some details Thursday about the widespread swatting incidents that caused lockdowns at high schools across the state Wednesday.

Those hoax calls about shootings were made to 17 Kansas high schools, Kansas Bureau of Investigations spokesperson Melissa Underwood said Thursday. All the calls were made between 7:50-9:50 a.m.

The hoax calls led to police responses at Wichita’s North High School, El Dorado High School, Free State High School in Lawrence, Garden City High School and many other Kansas high schools.

Underwood said Wednesday that the calls involved schools all over the state. She would not answer questions about what specific schools were affected, how the calls are connected or how they were related to a recent string of hoax calls in states around the U.S.

“These calls are very serious crimes that put innocent people at risk and have potentially dangerous consequences,” she said in an email. “We are working with our partners in an attempt to identify those responsible.”

Combining what was said by one affected school district and police departments who responded to the hoax calls provides a little more insight into the calls:

In El Dorado, the hoax caller used a Google-generated number and called city hall before the call was forwarded to 911, according to police chief Mike Holton and school district spokesperson Kimberly Koop. City spokesperson Julie Clements said the caller pretended to be a school district employee.

In Lawrence, the caller gave a name of an alleged shooter. Lawrence Police Department spokesperson Laura McCabe, citing the ongoing investigation, would not say if the name was an actual person affiliated with the school.

Clements said the caller, in El Dorado’s case, didn’t give a name of an alleged shooter.

This isn’t the first time swatting calls with an apparent link have been made to Kansas schools. In September, an active shooter call was reported at North High and other schools across Kansas and Missouri.

There have been more recent events in other states.

At least eight schools went into lockdown in Minnesota because of hoax calls on Monday and Tuesday, CBS reported. Last week, Colorado Public Radio reported at least a dozen school districts were affected by hoax calls.

In Kansas, any threat of school violence can be reported to the KBI at kbi.ks.gov/sar or to the Kansas School Safety Hotline at 1-877-626-8203. It also can be reported to your local police department.

Swatting is the act of making a false or prank call to law enforcement in an attempt to send armed officers to a particular address. A swatting call made in 2017 from a man in Los Angeles left Andrew Finch of Wichita dead after he was shot at his doorstep by Wichita police.