SWATTING INCIDENTS ON FEB. 22 Ortega Middle School 8:24 a.m. False active shooter threat. Aspen Elementary School 8:25 a.m. False threat of shots fired. Boulder High School 8:33 a.m. False armed individual threat. EMT vehicles and police stand outside Boulder High School on Feb. 22. Police were called to the school with information that a person was entering the school with a gun. The call was a hoax called “swatting.” Photo courtesy of John Herrick from Boulder Reporting Lab
WHAT IS SWATTING? The intentional act of reporting a nonexistent crime or situation to provoke law enforcement, often a SWAT team, to a target location with a malicious intention.
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team rose from Boulder High School Assistant Principal Scott Cawlfield’s coffee mug as he leaned back in his office chair, peering out his office window into the snowy Wednesday morning. As Arapahoe Avenue slowly filled with students on February 22, a police cruiser suddenly veered into the campus parking lot. Dozens of officers emerged from their cars and stormed towards the entrance. “I ran to the front office door to greet them, and it was at that time that they let us know that they had gotten a call,” Cawlfield said. “The caller had said they were at Boulder High School with a gun, and they were going to go in and cause harm.” In under three minutes, the school was surrounded and infiltrated by 50 police officers. “We immediately went into lockdown,” he said.
Brighton High School 8:41 a.m. False threat. Cañon City High School 9:00 a.m. False bomb threat. Durango High School 9:16 a.m. False active shooter threat. Englewood High School 9:19 a.m. False threat of shots fired. Estes Park High School 9:23 a.m. False active shooter threat. Fort Morgan High School 9:38 a.m. False threat of active shooter and guns fired. Grand Junction High School 10:05 a.m. False active shooter threat. Glenwood Springs High School 10:18 a.m. False bomb and shooter threat. Gilpin County High School 10:41 a.m. False incident threat. Littleton High School 1:45 p.m. False armed shooter threat. APRIL 2023
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