Inaccurate 911 calls about active shooter at Broward College reveal distress of loved ones

DAVIE — A mother worried her daughter stuck in the school’s hallway could be shot. A concerned resident who lives states away. A hardly audible voice: “It’s a Code Red in my school.”

Several people called 911 Wednesday as a false report of an active shooter on the Broward College campus in Davie circulated, depicting the fear that spread across several campuses that were locked down because of the threat.

Davie Chief of Police Stephen Kinsey said in an email Friday that the threat originated after someone called claiming a shooter was in one of the schools.

Callers reported getting texts and calls from their loved ones on campus who were hiding in a bathroom as people screamed outside, and another who heard noise in the hallways and wasn’t sure whether it was the police or a potential threat.

The panic at Broward College and surrounding schools Wednesday has become routine in American schools where drills for active shooters are the norm and schools are on high alert after receiving numerous threats throughout the school year.

Just over two weeks earlier, an 18-yearold gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, marking the second-deadliest school shooting since 26 were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012 and the deadliest since 17 were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2018.

Police swept the college and cleared the campus of any threats shortly before 3 p.m., about two hours after scores of Davie Police and SWAT officers arrived. The reported

potential shooter prompted lockdowns at six other nearby grade schools — Nova High School, Nova Middle School, Nova Eisenhower Elementary School, Nova Blanche Forman Elementary School, Davie Elementary School, McFatter Technical College and High School, Davie police said.

A student called 911, not daring to speak louder than a whisper as he told the line operator about what he thought was a shooter on campus.

The operator was able to make out few of his faint words.

“You said there’s a shooter at your school?” she asked.

He tried to tell her which school he was at, but the operator wasn’t able to confirm which of the multiple Nova schools before the line went dead.

One girl called after her sister, who was at the college, texted her and said she believed a shooter was on campus.

“Um, she doesn’t know what’s really going on, but she says that there’s supposedly a shooter,” the girl said. “There’s like people screaming, she’s saying, and she’s hiding somewhere but I’m not really sure what’s going on.”

Moments later, the operator said call takers were hearing reports of the threat but hadn’t been able to get clear information about what was happening.

Then a mother called worried about her daughter at Nova Middle School who had gone to the bathroom before the Code Red lockdown. All the classroom doors were locked by the time she came out, the mother told the operator.

“I know when the police try to sweep the school, they’re probably gonna see her,” she said. “I don’t want anyone shooting her, and I don’t know what the protocol is …”

“It’s probably not even a real thing, but if it is real, I don’t want her being, you know, in wrong place, wrong time type of thing,” the mother told the operator.

A husband called about his wife who was locked inside a classroom in building 8. Police swarmed building 9 after hearing about the potential threats.

“But she said they were hearing some noise outside ... But they don’t want to come out from the room because they don’t trust no one,” he said. “They don’t trust nobody. They want to make sure it’s the police outside.”

The threat was reported from as far away as Arkansas. An employee from a sheriff ’s office in Arkansas got a call from a resident after he saw a message about the threat in the online instant messaging platform Discord.

One woman locked herself inside of a bathroom and called her boyfriend in fear.

“She heard people screaming outside after somebody screamed, ‘Active shooter!’ And I heard the screaming over the phone myself,” the boyfriend told the operator.

Authorities said earlier in the school year that they’d seen a widespread increase in the number of school threats circulating online. Making threats against schools is a felony in Florida.

At least 11 minor students in Broward and Palm Beach County were arrested for making such threats, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported in November.

At least four Broward County students were arrested for bringing guns, some loaded, to campus during the 2021-22 school year, which ended Thursday in Broward.