Manitoba-linked U.S. school shooting hoaxes brought terror to class

The first full day of class at Volunteer High School in rural Tennessee was marred by a terrifying warning.

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This article was published 09/09/2021 (1501 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The first full day of class at Volunteer High School in rural Tennessee was marred by a terrifying warning.

“The caller claimed he had a gun, he was on campus, he was heading toward the gym, he was in one of the main restrooms and he was going to open fire,” Hawkins County Schools director Matt Hixson told the Free Press in an interview Thursday.

The prank call to the school Aug. 10 — allegedly dialed from Fisher River Cree Nation by a Manitoba man — led to a significant local police response and an investigation that spanned two American states and one Canadian province.

Parents of students from Volunteer High School in Church Hill, Tenn., await news on Aug. 10 after reports of an active shooter, which was eventually declared a hoax and believed to have originated in Manitoba. (Larry N. Souders / The Associated Press files)
Parents of students from Volunteer High School in Church Hill, Tenn., await news on Aug. 10 after reports of an active shooter, which was eventually declared a hoax and believed to have originated in Manitoba. (Larry N. Souders / The Associated Press files)

“Anytime you’re confronted with a realistic threat, a very real threat like what we experienced that day, your first concern is for staff and student safety and getting them accounted for and safe,” Hixson said.

On Wednesday, the RCMP said they were acting to assist the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Department of Homeland Security when Manitoba officers executed a search warrant Aug. 30 at a Fisher River home. Four hoax threats were placed in the two states in August, with the calls traced to the province, police said.

An 18-year-old man was arrested and a number of electronic items were seized, RCMP said, but would not elaborate on any potential motive. The accused’s name has not been released. He has been released and is to appear in court Dec. 7 at Peguis First Nation.

Officials described the incidents — two in Tennessee and two in North Carolina — as “swatting,” a name given to false reports that describe a life-threatening situation meant to provoke an armed police response.

Students and staff at the Tennessee school were just trickling in at around 8 a.m. when “everything broke loose.”

“That call came in and simultaneously a female student had a seizure in our parking lot — she was witnessed by several falling and hitting her head and bleeding in the parking lot — so the arriving officer sees a student going down, bleeding in the parking lot, and the call was being made,” Hixson said.

“We had responders from other counties, state agencies and federal agencies there within a matter of minutes… I think it was estimated at just under 100 law enforcement officers.”

Rhonda Lawson (centre) hugs her children, Donovan and Madison, as she describes to local media the moment she received the phone call of a possible active shooter at Volunteer High School in Church Hill, Tenn., on Aug. 10. (Larry N. Souders / The Associated Press files)
Rhonda Lawson (centre) hugs her children, Donovan and Madison, as she describes to local media the moment she received the phone call of a possible active shooter at Volunteer High School in Church Hill, Tenn., on Aug. 10. (Larry N. Souders / The Associated Press files)

The county school went into full-blown lockdown, while students and staff not already inside were directed away from the building, some off the campus. Police blocked roads and set up two incident command stations.

“Prior to that… (police) started going from room to room with SWAT personnel trying to locate the perpetrator — trying to identify any injured, or worse, staff or students,” Hixson said.

Just over a week later in neighbouring North Carolina, a similar threat was called in to Watauga High School at the end of the school day Aug. 18.

A law enforcement bulletin had circulated from Tennessee about the Hawkins County hoax, Watauga County Schools superintendent Scott Elliott told the Free Press, and dispatchers recognized the call was similar.

“Nonetheless and appropriately, they dispatched emergency response and law enforcement… and we initiated our emergency response procedures,” he said.

Police determined it was a hoax within about 40 minutes, but it was still disruptive to the rural school.

Hawkins County Sheriff Ronnie Lawson (right) and Church Hill, Tenn., Police Chief Chad Mosley (centre), speak to journalists on Aug. 10. (Larry N. Souders / The Associated Press files)
Hawkins County Sheriff Ronnie Lawson (right) and Church Hill, Tenn., Police Chief Chad Mosley (centre), speak to journalists on Aug. 10. (Larry N. Souders / The Associated Press files)

“It’s very alarming… even though, fortunately, often these kinds of events turn out to be false threats, we can never approach them that way,” Elliott said.

Swatting is a common prank in the online gaming world, Montreal-based cybersecurity expert Steve Waterhouse said. The goal in some cases is to see an adversary arrested or questioned by police on livestream.

It can have deadly consequences.

On Dec. 28, 2017, a Los Angeles man made a hoax emergency call that led to the fatal police shooting of a Kansas man. He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years after pleading guilty in 2019. He was also charged with public mischief, fraud and mischief after making a similar call in Calgary on Dec. 22 that year.

“Lives are at risk every time you have a SWAT team being sent to an address,” Waterhouse told the Free Press.

“(The callers) create such an environment of stress and life-threatening scenarios that the police cannot take any chance and say, ‘Well this must be another swatting attack and we’ll just take it easy’ — no, they jump on the gun and go rock and roll on the operation. They assume the worst.”

However, arrests aren’t as common as the calls themselves.

A lone Hawkins County Sheriff's Department patrol car sits outside the main entrance of Volunteer High School several hours after the building had been cleared. (Larry N. Souders / The Associated Press files)
A lone Hawkins County Sheriff's Department patrol car sits outside the main entrance of Volunteer High School several hours after the building had been cleared. (Larry N. Souders / The Associated Press files)

“If (the perpetrators) do the job correctly… they will cover their tracks properly and complexify enough the work of finding out who’s behind the mischief, and most often, they’re not found,” Waterhouse said.

Twitter: @erik_pindera

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

Every piece of reporting Erik produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

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