Numerous Active-Shooter Threats Made to Schools in Central/Eastern Iowa
It's been a very anxious day at a number of school districts across central and eastern Iowa.
We know of numerous school districts where the schools or law enforcement received calls this morning with threats or reports of active shooters. One of those was Clinton, where a 911 call to the Clinton Police Department reported shots fired at Clinton High School.
Clinton canceled school for the day, but thankfully, the threat was not real.
The Iowa City Community School District was also impacted by what is called "swatting calls". They are described as"generating an emergency law enforcement response against a target victim under false pretenses. Swatters do this by making phone calls to emergency lines like 911 and falsely reporting a violent emergency situation, such as a shooting or hostage situation."
The Iowa State Patrol announced in a video posted by KCCI that these types of calls also were made involving schools in Cedar Rapids, North Liberty, Davenport, and Muscatine, as well as school districts in Cerro Gordo, Polk, and Story counties.
The Keokuk School District was another that was involved in a threatening call. The City of Keokuk also says Ft. Madison and Central Lee schools received the same types of calls.
In an Iowa State Patrol video posted by KCCI, they say they believe all of the calls may have been made by the same person, or entity, due to the similarity of the calls and the voice of the person. The Iowa State Patrol says the calls are typically very difficult to trace because they use internet protocols to make the calls.
