Montrose “swatting” follow-up

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - A follow-up about yesterday’s active shooter threat at schools across the country including Colorado. In Montrose and other cities around the state, school districts got multiple calls of an active shooter on campuses. As we reported it turned out to be a fake threat also known as “swatting.” Swatting is when someone makes a prank call to authorities to dispatch a large number of officers to one place.

In Montrose, law enforcement was on the scene within minutes. This was just one of four other swatting called that districts from around the state received. I spoke with Matt Jenkins of Montrose County School District who said, “returning to that culture of speaking up. If you know something, if you have any information about this then share it with a trusted adult.” He was also very proud of the districts response to the threat saying, “within minutes school staff and district staff swept the school to make sure there was no active shooter event.”

These events aren’t unique to Colorado. Over the past two weeks calls have been made to districts in Texas, Kansas, and Virginia. This, forcing the Denver FBI to release a statement condemning these threats. The statement says in part, “the FBI takes swatting very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk and drains law enforcement resources.”

You are asked to call Montrose Police Department if you have any information regarding who made these calls.