Alleged ‘swatting’ incidents received by two Massachusetts high schools led to lock down at the schools. At 11:42 a.m., the regional emergency dispatch in Amesbury received a call.
In this call, a male-sounding voice said he had a pistol and was standing near Amesbury High School. Later the police were followed by what sounded like gunshots according to the Cragig Bailey, Police Chief.
Source: newburyportnews.com
While on the other side in Chelmsford, after around one hour, police received another phone call at 12:17 P.M. in which the caller said that he intended to cause harm and inflict damage to the Chelmsford High School informed by the James Spinney, Chelmsford Police Chief.
After getting the phone call, Amesbury High School was placed on lockdown immediately. Police started a search of the premises and the surrounding area while the other schools that received this type of swatting also started searching in the town.
According to the police Chief Cragig Bailey, once we searched the whole school and found the school was not in danger, we turned back to the school staff and resumed school. Due to precaution some of the families had dropped their children off for the day.
Bailey informed the media that police reached the spot just after received the call. Police did their work, included Newburyport, Merrimac, the Massachusetts State Police and regional law enforcement units from the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council.
Source: CBS News
Bailey said in the statement “Swatting calls like the one we received today use a tremendous amount of police and emergency resources, diverting those resources away from other potential emergencies,”
He said “We are pleased that our policies and procedures were followed, and I am very grateful for the response of our officers and the pouring in of mutual aid resources from our neighbours and regional partners.”
Another side, “hold in place”, was activated for the high school and the police continued the search for school grounds and the building as told by Spinney. Police said that might be the call was a hoax and lifted the “hold in place” order when they found all clear to the school community.
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