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Active Shooter Threat Cleared As False; Emergency Alerts Cleared
February 8, 2023
A false call of an active shooter Wednesday morning at Pensacola Catholic High has been cleared.
The call came in about 11:35 a.m. of a shooting — an apparent “swatting” where a false report is made to generate a law enforcement response.
“The Pensacola Police Department received information of a possible active shooter situation at Pensacola Catholic High School (3043 W Scott Street) and responded as an agency assist with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office,” Pensacola Police spokesperson Brittany Sturgeon said. “Our agency provided all available resources. The call was determined to be fraudulent, known as a ’swatting’ incident. Catholic High School is secure and back to normal operating procedures.”
Residents across a broad area received an emergency alert on their phone, televisions and other devices.
“Active shooter reported in your area, run hide or fight,” the emergency alert repeated twice. The message stated it pertained to Escambia County but did not give a location.
“As it relates to the previous Pensacola High School Alert, the situation is ALL CLEAR,” another message said.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement: “Many of you received an alert in reference to an active shooter at a local school. This was determined to be a SWATTING call. The ESCO, along with Pensacola Police Department, responded and have determined the school to be safe, secure and back to normal operations.”
NorthEscambia.com images.
Comments
5 Responses to “Active Shooter Threat Cleared As False; Emergency Alerts Cleared”
I suspect the alert only went out to the area containing families of students attending Pensacola Catholic High School students. They draw from a wider area than just around the building.
Eric Gilmore admitted there were unrecognized bugs in the system. He will fix them. I have confidence.
Now, let us swat the bug which placed the false call. This risked lives.
David for fly-swatters
Geez – Alerts are BROADCAST. That means you are subject to receive them. It this time, the technology to make them area specific doesn’t exist – ESPECIALLY for cell phones. Remember – one cell tower covers many square miles. I will admit – additional info regarding the affected area would certainly go a long way in removing stress. However – some individuals are ATTRACTED to these alerts. No doubt some sort of thrill seekers. In the mean time – unless there’s an active shooter in your living room – just turn the alerts off until the crisis clears.
@ RaD I agree, there is a lot of work that needs to be done on the emergency alert system. It keeps getting worse and worse, I’m almost forty miles from either of these schools and didn’t need to know about either one. If they don’t do some improvements people will stop paying attention to it. My favorite is when there is severe weather in the area. I’ve been watching local coverage and getting good information about what is happening in our area when the emergency alert system will break in and tell you about a severe thunderstorm watch or warning in central MS or AL blocking me from seeing information that is much more important to me. A good start would be for the government to turn control over to local stations during bad weather, our local weather people know more about what’s going on here than the government does during bad weather.
Bad thing to happen, thank God it was bogus.
First alert made us think “active shooter” was in the neighborhood. Couldn’t imagine that but hey in these days and times….Prepared ourselves and home immediately.
Later got report was at Pensacola High then another cancelling alert.
Kinda shook up for awhile….just thankful nobody hurt.
If was a “Swatting” then hope the cops find the person doing this and take them to the train station for a swatting.
“Active shooter reported in your area, run hide or fight,” the emergency alert repeated twice. The message stated it pertained to Escambia County but did not give a location.
I was in Santa Rosa County and received the message, “Public Safety Alert, Active Shooter reported in your area, run, hide, fight” at 11:42am There was nothing about Escambia County in it anywhere. Then at 12:04pm I got a Pensacola High All Clear message and at 12:14 I got a Pensacola Catholic All Clear.
This is ridiculous. I live 10 miles as the crow flies from Pensacola Catholic High School. 21 miles driving distance. The message needs to either include a specific location or address OR there needs to be a way to only send it to cell phone towers within a reasonable area. Broadcasting it to a 2-county area is unacceptable.