Report of gunman at Northwestern called a hoax
UPDATE: 3/14/2018 2:39 p.m. Police said that the report of a gunman in a residence hall at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago was a hoax.
Evanston Police Commander Ryan Glew said the Wednesday afternoon call was a “swatting” in which someone calls in a false report in the hopes in prompting a police department SWAT team to respond.
Nobody was injured and Glew said the student who the caller reported had been shot by a boyfriend has been located and she is safe.
Glew said the call came from outside the Chicago region – southeast of Rockford in northern Illinois – and that the apartment that police responded to had been vacant since around Thanksgiving.
The call prompted Northwestern to urge people in the area to “shelter in a safe place and stay until further notice.”
Such calls can be extremely dangerous. In December, police who responded to such a hoax call fatally shot a man who answered his door in Wichita, Kansas.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/EvanstonPD/status/974034356632158211″,”author_name”:”Evanston, IL Police”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/EvanstonPD”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;The incident at Emerson and Maple was swatting incident. No victims or danger to the public. Area is secure. Police and Fire are clearing the area.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Evanston, IL Police (@EvanstonPD) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/EvanstonPD/status/974034356632158211?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;March 14, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/NorthwesternU/status/974035827784380416″,”author_name”:”Northwestern”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/NorthwesternU”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;ALL CLEAR. Police have determined that the report of a man with a gun in Engelhart Hall was a hoax. It was made in a call to the Evanston Police Department. No danger to the community exists. Police are investigating the false report.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Northwestern (@NorthwesternU) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/NorthwesternU/status/974035827784380416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;March 14, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
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Authorities are urging people at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago to take shelter after a report of a gunman and shots fired in a student residential building.
In a Twitter post Wednesday afternoon, Evanston police said there was a report of a gun and “shots fired” but that officers had not found “evidence of a victim, scene or gunman.”
University spokesman Jon Yates says the report comes from Engelhart Hall, a graduate student dormitory. But he says the university has not confirmed that any shots were fired.
The university also sent a tweet asking people to stay away from the area and to “shelter in a safe place and stay until further notice.”
The report comes as students across the country walked out of school to protest gun violence.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/EvanstonPD/status/974015205058498561″,”author_name”:”Evanston, IL Police”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/EvanstonPD”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Evanston and NUPD in the area of Emerson and Maple. Report of gunman and shots fired in a residential building. Area checked no evidence of a victim, scene, or gunman found.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Evanston, IL Police (@EvanstonPD) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/EvanstonPD/status/974015205058498561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;March 14, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/NorthwesternU/status/974011208687869955″,”author_name”:”Northwestern”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/NorthwesternU”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;There is a report of a person with a gun in Engelhart Hall at the corner of Emerson Street and Maple Avenue. Evanston and Northwestern University police are on the scene. Seek shelter if in the area.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Northwestern (@NorthwesternU) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/NorthwesternU/status/974011208687869955?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;March 14, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
