US college campuses experiencing epidemic of swatting calls following shooting death of Charlie Kirk [View all]

Source: ABC News

September 12, 2025, 8:42 AM


College campuses across America are experiencing an epidemic of hoax calls about bogus shootings and other emergencies following the shooting death of Charlie Kirk this week. These calls -- known as swatting -- panicked at least a dozen schools as police rush to campuses, chasing phantom threats with many of them being racially motivated and targeting historically Black colleges and universities.

Activities froze in places like Virginia State University after a swatting call and at Southern University in Louisiana, where classes have already been cancelled through the weekend, another swatting call put the entire campus on high alert.

Police say they must respond to these hoax calls about campus shootings as if they are real as the shootings become more and more common.

The concern, authorities say, is twofold. Swatting wastes law enforcement resources but also ends up sending heavily armed officers into student spaces with guns drawn, a problem highlighted just this week when a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, was shot during a swatting response and had to be flown by helicopter to the hospital.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/us-college-campuses-experiencing-epidemic-swatting-calls-shooting/story?id=125508701