A “swatting” call about an active shooter triggered a massive police response at Claremont McKenna College on Thursday evening, a day after a similar false report caused panic and evacuations at Loma Linda Children’s Hospital in San Bernardino County.
Students were warned to shelter in place at the five undergraduate colleges in the Claremont consortium after the Claremont Police Department received a call warning of a gunman on campus around 4:45 p.m., according to the department.
“The caller told dispatch they were in a restroom on the Claremont McKenna College campus, holding someone captive and threatening to harm them,” the department said in a statement. “They also stated they had a bomb and were going to walk around with a rifle and shoot anyone they saw on the campus.”
Multiple law enforcement agencies responded and conducted a search of Claremont McKenna College and the nearby Pomona College, Scripps College, Harvey Mudd College and Pitzer College campuses. There was no sign of an active shooter or any victims, police said. The shelter-in-place order was lifted at 7:30 p.m.
“I was just doing some homework — I have a paper due — and I just get a text: ‘potential shooter,’” a student identified as Gabe told KTLA. “I look out the window, SWAT teams, cops, and it said you got to get off campus, get to safety and lock the doors. We just started going away from campus.”
A similar pattern played out at Loma Linda Children’s Hospital on Wednesday evening after the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department received a call from someone who said he was inside the hospital armed. The call prompted a huge law enforcement response before an all-clear was issued around 8 p.m.
“Law enforcement officers responded from two counties, taking away their ability to handle emergency calls in their own communities,” San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said in a statement. “All of this caused by a hoax to falsely portray a catastrophic event.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a bulletin last year that swatting calls “often come in clusters” and “are typically made to harass, intimidate, and/or retaliate against their intended target.”
According to Homeland Security, in January 2024 the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center tracked more than 100 threats to more than 1,000 locations in 42 states during a one-month period.
Last month, a young Lancaster man was sentenced to four years in prison after he made nearly 400 swatting calls to high schools, universities, places of worship and government officials.
Thursday evening’s call, though fake, caused real fear on campus.
In a 6:15 p.m. email, Claremont Mckenna College Dean of Students Jimmy Doan said he knew the situation was “very scary” and sent out a form to students to track their locations, according to reporting by student newspaper the Claremont Independent.
Classes were canceled during the incident but will resume Friday, according to a Pomona College statement on X. The college advised students that counseling resources remain available at Student Health Services until 9 p.m. Thursday and that 24/7 mental health services are available through TimelyCare’s online platform.
