Breaking: Northwestern University Shooting Scare Deemed 'Swatting Incident'

emmafiala (44)in #news • 7 years ago (edited)

After a report of shots fired prompted a shelter in place alert on Northwestern University's campus, multiple street closures, heavy police presence, and snipers on a rooftop, Evanston Police tweeted "no evidence of a victim, scene, or gunman" in what turned out to be a swatting incident.

According to Northwestern University's Twitter account, a person with a gun was spotted on campus Wednesday afternoon. This prompted the school to request that students and staff shelter in place.

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The private university is located in the town of Evanston, just north of Chicago. The university also has campuses in Chicago and Doha, Qatar, as well as programs and facilities in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

At 2:30 PM, Evanston police tweeted about shots fired in the area of Emerson and Maple, a few blocks west of campus.

While the university's Twitter updates and emergency alert did not mention shots fired, reports from local police and news did.

Reports of shots fired prompted local police to deploy snipers to nearby rooftops.

A heavy police presence can be seen on FOX32's livestream of the situation from their helicopter on their Facebook page.

At 3:11 PM, Evanston Police posted an update that they found "no evidence of a victim, scene, or gunman" at Engelhart Hall, a graduate student dormitory at the corner of Emerson and Maple.

At 3:40 PM, Northwestern University shared an update on Twitter, ending the shelter in place alert for all students and staff except for those in the apartments located at the corner of Emerson and Maple.