A “swing” call about an active shooter sparked a massive police response at Claremont McKenna College Thursday night, the day after similar false reports sparked panic and evacuation at Loma Linda Children’s Hospital in San Bernardino County.
The department said it warned students at the shelter of five undergraduate colleges in the Claremont Consortium after the Claremont Police Department received a call warning from the gunman on campus at around 4:45 p.m.
“The callers told Dispatch that they were in the bathroom on the Claremont McKenna College campus, holding someone in their arms, threatening to hurt them,” the department said in a statement. “They also said they had a bomb that would walk around with a rifle and shoot anyone they saw on campus.”
Several law enforcement agencies responded and searched the Claremont McKenna College and nearby Pomona College, Scripps College, Harvey Murd College and Pitzer College campuses. Police said there was no sign of active shooter or any victim. On-site orders are cancelled at 7:30 pm
“I just do some homework – I have a paper and I just get a text: ‘Potential shooter’,” a student named Gabe told KTLA. “I looked out the window, the SWAT team, the police, it said you have to leave the campus, arrive safely and lock the door. We're just starting to leave the campus.”
A similar pattern appeared at Loma Linda Children's Hospital Wednesday night after the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department received a call from someone who said he was inside the hospital. The call prompted a clear law enforcement response around 8 p.m.
“Law enforcement responded from both counties, depriving them of their ability to handle emergency calls in their own communities,” San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said in a statement. “All of this was caused by scams to falsely portray catastrophic events.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a notice last year that the blown calls “commonly appear in clusters” and “usually for harassment, intimidation and/or retaliation for their intended targets.”
According to the Department of Homeland Security, in January 2024, the FBI and the National Counter-Terrorism Center tracked more than 100 threats in more than 1,000 states in 42 states in one month.
A young Lancaster man was sentenced to four years in prison last month after making nearly 400 calls to high school, college, place of worship and government officials.
The Thursday night phone call, though fake, was really scared on campus.
In an email at 6:15 p.m., Claremont McKenna College student Jimmy Doan said he knew the situation was “very scary” and sent a form to the students to track their locations.
The course was cancelled in the event but will resume on Friday, according to a statement from Pomona College on X. The college recommends that students retain consulting resources in student health services until 9 p.m. Thursday and can obtain 24/7 mental health services through timely use of a timely online platform.
