25 schools and nine Jewish facilities throughout Minnesota recipients of "swatting" incidents, including shooting and bomb threats
Dec 07, 2023 11:00AM ● By Content Editor
Photo: Scott Rodgerson
Editor's note: Boreal Community Media reached out to Cook County Sheriff Eliasen to verify whether any Cook County school was included in these incidents. Eliasen shared that no incidents have been reported in the area.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is aware of multiple swatting incidents involving emailed bombing and shooting threats on Wednesday, December 6, to schools and Jewish facilities. Swatting involves making a prank threat in an attempt to bring a large law enforcement response to a particular address. Local law enforcement departments are responding. No incidents have turned out to be real.
As of 3:45 p.m. at least 25 schools and nine Jewish facilities in Minnesota have reported receiving these messages. The language in each threat is almost identical. Investigators have determined that an individual and address identified in the threats have no known involvement in these swatting incidents.
The BCA's Minnesota Fusion Center is tracking these reports and keeping local law enforcement apprised of the situation.
At this time, other states are not reporting similar widespread swatting attempts today.
We remind students and communities to notify local law enforcement and school resource officers about suspected threats to schools and to contact the BCA through our See It Say It Send It app.
Learn more and download the app: https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/bca/Pages/bca-tip-app.aspx.
