The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville was on lockdown after the RazALERT notified students and faculty there was an active shooter on campus at the Mullins Library on Aug. 25, 2025.
From left, freshmen Randall Carter and Charlie Schwartz outside of Corr Chapel on Aug. 21, 2025 after an active shooter call was labeled a hoax at Villanova University.
Students gather in prayer after an active shooting hoax at Villanova University on Aug. 21, 2025.
Families and students pray together at a campus-wide blessing after an active shooter hoax at Villanova University on Aug. 21, 2025

When students of at least five universities across the U.S. should have been getting ready for their first day of class, they were running, hiding, and barricading themselves in rooms because of reports of an active shooter.

Active shooter reports hit the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Villanova University on Aug. 21 and the University of South Carolina on Aug. 24. And Northern Arizona University received a report of a person with a gun at Cline Library on the Flagstaff mountain campus.

Although they turned out to be hoaxes, such reports typically terrify students and their parents and wast millions of dollars in first-responder resources. The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville on Aug. 25 is also looking into an active shooter alert that may prove false.

The fear and panic is exactly what the people who make such so-called swatting reports want, said Gary Cordner, a former police chief and professor of police studies who is now updating a guide on the misuse and abuse of 911 for the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing at Arizona State University.

"The words active shooter are probably just about as fear-inducing as anything you can think of," he said. "So make a false report of one of those, until it can be completely dispelled, it certainly induces a whole lot of fear."

And because real active shooters strike in the U.S. from time to time, universities and police departments have no choice but to deploy every available resource.

"It can't be ignored, it can't be dismissed, just because the consequences could be so dire," Cordner said. "College campuses, they're quite large, there are lots and lots of buildings, so it's a big task to check it all out just to determine nothing was going on."

In the wake of the panic at college campuses in the last week, USA TODAY is looking at just how common hoaxes that cause mass panic are, why they happen, what the repercussions are and what can be done.

What is swatting and how big is the problem?

Hoaxes have been plaguing the nation for years, including at schools, grocery stores, office buildings and airports − anywhere large groups of people gather. Also known as swatting, false reports of serious crimes are intended to spark a heavy law enforcement response.

"It's an enormous problem," said Elizabeth Jaffe, associate professor at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School whose focus is cyberbullying and social media. "One incident is a major problem, so if we've got hundreds and thousands, it’s an evolving epidemic."

Estimated swatting incidents jumped from 400 in 2011 to more than 1,000 in 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which cited a former FBI agent whose expertise is in swatting.

From January 2023 to June 2024 alone, more than 800 instances of swatting were recorded at U.S. elementary, middle and high schools, according to the K-12 School Shootings Database, created by a University of Central Florida doctoral student in response to the Parkland High School shooting in 2018.

The FBI has been aware of the problem since at least 2008. It became so pervasive that in 2023, the agency launched a database for law enforcement agencies to report swatting incidents, according to an FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division announcement.

Who is doing the swatting and why?

Swatting emerged as a popular if potentially deadly hoax among gamers in the early 2000s, according to researchers at the Anti-Defamation League. Since then, it has become a tool used by everyone from pranksters to online extremists, according to Carla Hill, senior director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League.

"It used to be someone would pull the fire alarm because they didn't want to go to school. Now they swat the school," Hill said.

"They get a thrill out of it," Jaffe said.

Hill, who has also worked to track swatters, played an instrumental role in an FBI investigation into a ring of swatters targeting Jewish and minority institutions in 2023.

Hill said she got lucky in the case because the group was bragging about the exploits online. The group targeted at least 25 synagogues in 13 states, according to the FBI.

But unless a swatter uses their own phone or speaks about it publicly, the person can be difficult for law enforcement to track. "There’s so many ways you can do it without being traceable," Hill said.

Why is swatting such a big problem?

Hoaxes not only disrupt schools and businesses, but they also drain police, fire and EMS resources that race to the scene.

"We have to treat each one as real until we know it's a hoax," Kelly Smith, former assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Seattle office, said in an agency video about the problem. "We direct law enforcement resources away from other active investigations, and that causes a significant strain on the resources of both our agency and our local police departments."

David Riedman, a data scientist and creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database, estimates that in 2023, it cost $82,300,000 for police to respond to false threats.

And on top of the terror that swatting can cause, it can land innocent bystanders in dangerous situations. Four Black undergraduate students at Harvard University wound up being held at gunpoint during a swatting incident at the Ivy League school in 2023, according to reporting by The Harvard Crimson.

And some cases of swatting have turned deadly. Tyler Barriss, a gamer with a history of making hoax calls, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in connection with the shooting death of Andrew Finch in Wichita, Kansas, in 2017, according to reporting by NBC News. Finch was shot and killed by police responding to a swatting call Barriss made. Finch, who did not know Barriss, lived at an address where Barriss believed his target was.

What can be done about swatting?

Experts agree that stronger laws, harsher penalties and better technology to track swatters are needed.

"It’s often like this with technology: We need to catch up," Hill said, adding there are stronger protections in some states. "We need to get some laws on the books."

John DeCarlo, a former police chief who has responded to hoaxes and who is now a professor at the University of New Haven’s Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Science, said that one major step was the FBI treating swatting as a federal offense but agreed that technology is a major hurdle because it can allow swatters to mask their voices, IP addresses and identities.

Earlier this year, for instance, an 18-year-old Southern California man who prosecutors say made over 375 swatting and threat calls − including reporting mass shootings − between August 2022 and January 2024, was sentenced to four years in prison.

DeCarlo said he expects more swatting incidents similar to this past week's as authorities scramble to track down swatters.

"The fact is every hoax call like this diverts officers from real emergencies and real risks, and that’s the real tragedy of it," he said. "It takes public protection away where it's needed."

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat. Michael Loria is a national reporter on the USA TODAY breaking news desk. Contact him at mloria@usatoday.com, @mchael_mchael or on Signal at (202) 290-4585.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Swatting mayhem: Universities scrambling to respond to hoax active shooter reports

Reporting by Amanda Lee Myers, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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