Alarming False Active Shooter Call Made to Local School
What could have turned into a potentially deadly situation was thankfully just a false alarm today at a local high school.
Just before noon today, Wednesday, November 16, 2022, the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office responded to a call regarding a possible active shooter incident at Benton High School which was later determined to be false.
Bossier Parish Dispatchers received the call at 11:43 am and the caller stated that five students had been shot and that an active shooting was in progress. Officials, including Student Resource Officers, Patrol Deputies, and Detectives, arrived on the scene and performed a thorough investigation of the school grounds finding no evidence of a disturbance and ruled the call a false alarm.
Soon after, the school returned to normal operations. The origin of the call is being investigated and detectives believe it came from outside of the United States, similar to the bomb threat the school received in April 2022.
Thankfully, this was a false alarm and no one was hurt, but this is a good time to remind folks that 'swatting' is a crime punishable by law. Swatting is defined as 'the action or practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address.' After speaking with law enforcement, if the person behind the call is found, they would most likely be charged with making terroristic threats. I think it's safe to say they take this kind of thing seriously.