False alarms, real fear: Inside the surge of hoax shooter calls targeting Georgia colleges

The five incidents are among a disturbing pattern seen at universities nationwide. There was a false report of gunshots at the University of Florida’s Smathers Library Monday evening.

While there’s little research on how many swatting cases are solved, security experts say many cases remain open. It’s tough to catch the culprits for many reasons, in part because of the technology callers use to disguise themselves. No arrests have been made more than a month after the calls to the Woodruff library, UGA, the University of West Georgia, Central Georgia Technical College and Mercer University. Clark Atlanta University, along with several historically Black colleges and universities across the country, received threats to their campuses in mid-September. The FBI later said the threats were a hoax but has not announced any arrests in those cases. U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Ga., co-authored a Sept. 19 letter to federal law enforcement officials demanding they fully investigate the threats to the HBCUs.

Authorities say the false alarms drain resources and put innocent people at risk.

“These false reports cause unnecessary fear and divert critical emergency resources. Making such a false report is not a harmless prank—it is a dangerous and unlawful act," UGA said in a statement minutes after determining the call it received was a hoax.

The FBI said it has seen an increase in swatting events nationally and is working with law enforcement partners. It did not comment on the Georgia cases. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said it is aware of the national trend and is coordinating with other states and local partners.

While the origin of the calls remains unclear, Wired reports that an online group with ties to violent extremists has taken credit for calls nationally, although not specifically for the Georgia incidents.

Just like in Georgia, many of the hoaxes — including at the University of Kentucky, the University of South Carolina, West Virginia University, the University of Arkansas and the University of Colorado-Boulder — reported active shooters in the same location: the school library.

Multiple outlets reported some hoaxes included the sound of gunshots. Similarly, emergency dispatchers heard the sound of gunfire in at least four of the five Georgia calls, according to police reports reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Throughout a distressing 7-minute audio recording obtained by the AJC through an open records request, a 911 operator tries to put the GSU caller at ease as the loud bangs increase in frequency. “I heard it, sweetie. I can hear (the gunshots). Just stay quiet for me, OK, Jacob?” the operator tells the student, who identified himself as “Jacob Lander.”

Over and over again, police found the scenes they arrived at did not match the descriptions provided by the caller. There was no one hiding at the alleged crime scene. There is no Jacob Lander attending Georgia State University. And there was no armed man in the AUC Woodruff Library, which is actually located at Clark Atlanta University, not at GSU as the caller said.

An Atlanta Police Department incident report notes they found no shell casings, no blood and no signs of distress. At UWG, university police found “several students outside walking in a calm manner, not running away as one would expect in an active shooter situation.” And they realized the library had already been closed for hours when the call came in.

Ben Renell, a sophomore studying physics at UGA, was giving his girlfriend a tour of the school that Friday night when he got multiple alerts on his phone. The Athens university was informing students of reports of an active shooter at the Main Library, a short walk from where Renell was standing. Students were to stay away from North Campus, he recalled.

The recent hoaxes are not the first instance where colleges and schools have received unfounded threats. In early 2022, three HBCUs in Georgia were among the two dozen nationwide that received bomb threats. A minor was charged with making most of the threats, the FBI announced that November. In late 2022, NPR found local news reports indicating 182 schools in 28 states received false calls about threats between Sept. 13 and Oct. 21. U.S. schools received nearly 350 swatting calls during the 2023-24 academic year, according to one count by the K-12 School Shooting Database.

Brian Higgins, a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, said it’s difficult to trace swatting calls since many of them are done through computer-based programs. While 911 will typically receive multiple calls during actual emergencies, he said, hoax culprits will often make just one call.

“That’s usually a big tipoff,” said Higgins, a former police chief and public safety director in Bergen County, New Jersey, and founder of Group 77, a security assessment company.

Most colleges, he said, have advanced security systems that should allow them to quickly check cameras in locations where a threat is said to be happening. While some question the efficacy of active shooter drills, Higgins said colleges should conduct them regularly.

On the night of Aug. 29, Renell believed his and his girlfriend’s lives could be in danger. Beyond the scary episode he experienced, he thinks the string of active shooter hoaxes could have larger consequences.