Law enforcement officials in Washington state arrested a minor in connection to a false shooting call made in September against San Marcos High School, the San Marcos Police Department announced Tuesday.
The Whitman County sheriff’s office arrested a minor in Washington on Thursday on felony charges of terroristic threat and false alarm and report for a Sept. 24 hoax call about San Marcos High, police said. The minor faces other charges for similar calls elsewhere, San Marcos police said.
The suspect lives in Whitman County in eastern Washington. The San Marcos police investigation showed no connection with San Marcos nor was San Marcos High targeted for any specific reason, according to a spokesperson for the Police Department.
The September 911 call, which came at 3:32 p.m., reported a gunman in the “main hallway” of the school. A male caller whispered as he told the dispatcher that the gunman had aimed his weapon at him and that the caller was hiding in a bathroom.
The caller then told the dispatcher the gunman had walked into the bathroom and could be heard saying, “No, please, please, please, please” on the phone before a gunshot sounded in the background, police said. After the gunshot, the caller stopped responding and a second gunshot could be heard about 40 seconds later, police said.
The call drew a signficiant and large response from surrounding counties and cities, which initially treated the hoax as a legitimate threat. While police investigated, the high school was placed on lockdown and about 50 officers swept the school buildings.
“Although the call was determined to be false, the emergency response to the San Marcos High School was real with more than 150 personnel from multiple agencies arriving to the campus,” San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge said in a statement Tuesday. “We know that many in our community, including parents and school staff, were shaken by the threat.”
Data from the original phone call suggested the call was related to a series of other swatting calls across the country, including a false threat against the Lewistown Police Department in Idaho, San Marcos police said. Whitman County, Wash. is adjacent to Lewiston.
San Marcos police declined to release the names of other schools or locations that received swatting calls.
Detectives collected digital evidence from the suspect’s cell phone and computers seized through a search warrant at his home in Washington that linked him to calls targeting San Marcos High and Lewistown police, San Marcos police said. The data and information have been shared with the FBI and other agencies and more charges could follow, San Marcos police said.
The San Marcos incident came during a wave of swatting calls, or hoax calls, across Texas schools. More than a dozen students were arrested in Central Texas in connection with making or spreading false threats.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Minor arrested in connection to San Marcos High threat in September