Making Sense of “Swatting” Hoax That Hit BU Sunday Night
Frustration all around, as police must respond not knowing if it’s real or fake, and alerts cause fear and panic
A series of calls to BU Sunday night reporting an active shooter on campus turned out to be false. The calls prompted a series of BU Alerts, which were sent to more than 54,000 students, faculty, staff, and affiliates. Photo by Bob O’Connor
Making Sense of “Swatting” Hoax That Hit BU Sunday Night
Frustration all around, as police must respond not knowing if it’s real or fake, and alerts cause fear and panic
The calls came in to the Boston University Police Department in rapid succession around 8 Sunday night. A frantic voice with gunshots in the background reported an active shooter at 855 Comm Ave, 233 Bay State Rd., and 733 Comm Ave.
One clue that it was a hoax might have been when, asked for a location, the caller said “the University of Boston.” But the BUPD must take a call of that gravity seriously, and so officers responded as if it was the real thing—securing buildings, ushering students in the glass-enclosed lobby of the Center for Computing & Data Sciences into the basement, and sending out a campus-wide alert that officers were responding to a call of an active shooter, but that there was no evidence it was legitimate.
They found nothing. There was no shooter. Kelly Nee, BU’s chief safety, security, and preparedness officer, says it was another incident in a nationwide plague of hoax calls, known as “swatting,” because of the police Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams it is intended to draw. Harvard experienced an incident last week. And Time magazine reported that dozens, if not hundreds, of such calls have been made to high schools and colleges around the country in recent weeks, including in Massachusetts.
But why?
“I think it’s just to cause chaos,” Nee says. “They’re not asking for money. It’s not a ransomware type of thing. But the thing I have to worry about as a law enforcement professional is, are they testing our response? So, it certainly keeps law enforcement on its toes.”
Subsequent BU Alerts said police were “confident” there was no threat to the community. But, by that point, the switchboard at BUPD had been overwhelmed with concerned calls.
“Hoax ‘swatting’ calls have been occurring nationally and cause a great deal of anxiety to the community,” the final BU Alert message said. “Please know that there are multiple resources available to anyone experiencing any trauma as a result of the events tonight.”
Many students found it difficult to calm down after the all clear was issued, and took to social media to express themselves. “I feel dumb for being shaken up,” user anon_2454 posted to the BU subreddit late Sunday. “Nothing bad actually happened…so why can I not stop shaking? My heart is racing.” Numerous commenters said they felt the same way and that it was a normal response. Resources for coping are offered by Student Health Services and the Faculty & Staff Assistance Office.
Nee acknowledged as a mother of two kids that went away to college, she understands student and parent anxieties. “I completely understand their feelings, especially if the parent can’t reach the student. It’s got to be incredibly anxiety-provoking. That’s why we try to send out as many messages, and as quickly as possible.”
Sunday’s BU Alerts went out to 54,438 students, faculty, staff, and affiliates, according to Rene Fielding, the University’s emergency management director. Those people are automatically entered into the system by pulling the information from BU databases. The alerts are sent by text, email, phone call, Everbridge app, social media, and the University’s web pages, but because of the huge volume, not everyone will see them at the same time. The alerts are also now available by text message to parents, neighbors, and vendors on campus who opt in by texting BUALERT to 888777; currently, about 1,800 people subscribe to this feature, which was new this school year.
The hoax calls also “tie up a lot of valuable emergency response resources,” Nee says. “If somebody were calling us last night for a mental health issue or a medical issue, there’s a chance we might not have been able to get to them, because all of our resources were tied up with the swatting stuff. It just takes hours to put it to bed.”
There is also a potential for an encounter to go terribly wrong, when officers with weapons at the ready enter places where they are not expected. That’s what happened at Harvard, where four African American students were awakened in the middle of the night by officers pointing guns at them after receiving calls about an armed individual in the campus dorms.
“That’s going to be a traumatic event for students that might be living in that building that are going to see this very tactical entry,” Nee says. “It’s very, very, very challenging. But our number one job is to neutralize or mitigate the threat.”
It is extremely rare for swatting perpetrators to be identified, as technology makes it easy to remain anonymous. The FBI believes many of the swatting calls originate overseas, Nee says. The callers could be charged with making a false police report, but Nee says she would like to see them charged under terrorism statutes.
For now, staying safe is something everyone must prepare for, Nee says, noting that she and others are preparing to make a BU-specific video on the “Run, Hide, Fight” technique for people caught in a mass shooting. There are simply too many people interested to provide them all with live training. People should always be aware of possible escape routes from public places and think about what they might do if an emergency occurs.
“Can I tell you that the students that my office encountered last night were extraordinary?” Nee says. “They all really took responsibility for their safety. They were barricading in place, they were hunkering down, and they were waiting for the all clear. They did a remarkable job. And, let’s face it, most kids in the United States have had this training through middle school or elementary school intruder training.”
Can I tell you that the students that my office encountered last night were extraordinary? They all really took responsibility for their safety. They were barricading in place, they were hunkering down, and they were waiting for the all clear. They did a remarkable job.
Emily Wyrwa (COM’26), features editor for The Daily Free Press, says she was alone in her dorm when she initially heard the news.
“I had just gone from editing a fluffy story about a theater production happening at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre to thinking my friends were dead,” Wyrwa says. “I didn’t know where my friends were, so I started calling the people closest to me to make sure that everybody was somewhere with security to make sure that everybody was okay.”
Sebastiaan Bak (Questrom’25) says he was walking on Comm Ave on his way to City Convenience at Warren Towers when he received the first BU Alert.
Having grown up in South Florida where the Parkland shooting took place, Bak says, he has undergone training to handle gun violence situations like this. “My mind was kind of relaxed that entire night,” he says. “Once we panic, we think impulsively and you don’t necessarily want that.”
He says while he felt the police took “a great initiative in controlling the situation,” it is “kind of concerning” that the University hasn’t released a statement since.
Sean Waddington (CAS’25), president of BU College Democrats, says he also felt “frustrated” after receiving the second alert, which asked that people stop calling the BUPD for updates on the active shooter situation and wait for the next alert. He says it was then that he started to write a statement in response.
Nee says she understands why people were upset: “Even though we say it’s a low-likelihood event, it doesn’t feel like it’s a low-likelihood every single day when you’re seeing firearm-related violence across every sector. It’s not academic. It’s not just hospitals or theaters or restaurants. It’s everywhere.”
“We could,” she notes, “get into a whole other debate about guns and the gun culture in this country.”
By the time she spoke to BU Today on Monday, news outlets were already reporting another mass shooting in a bank in Louisville, Ky.
Comments & Discussion
Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.