A teen has been charged with making hoax active shooter reports at numerous universities last year — including a terrifying incident at Villanova University that left students fleeing during Orientation Mass.
The kid — an admitted member of the the online criminal group “Purgatory” — wasn’t affiliated with the colleges and institutions that were randomly targeted for disruptive so-called “swatting calls,” according to the Philadelphia US Attorney David Metcalf.
The case is sealed since the defendant is being charged as a juvenile and details like their name, age, sex and where they are from are all confidential.
Swatting calls are fake reports of non-existent emergencies like an active shooter that are meant to cause panic and the deployment of heavily armed cops, including SWAT teams.
The calls are meant to harass the targets and raise the notoriety of the caller in online groups — by showing they are willing to unleash mayhem and terrify victims.
But the calls waste law enforcement resources who are forced to respond to what they believe are very real life and death situations. In some cases, police have mistakenly shot the victims of swatting — believing they were a danger.
In August, Villanova University’s start of the semester was thrown into chaos after a 911 call reported an active shooter and one fatality at the Catholic institution outside Philadelphia.
Students and parents, who were arriving on campus for the start of the year, were ordered to shelter in place and stay away from the school’s Scarpa Hall before officials discovered the whole thing was a hoax.
Three days later, the school was hit with a second bogus emergency call about an active shooter that forced a police sweep.
In August, at least 10 universities across the US were hit with swatting calls made by Purgatory — which uses AI to replicate the sounds of gunfire and people screaming to play in the background during 911 calls.
The group charged fees to carry out the hoaxes for buyers and Purgatory’s leader claimed it had netted $100,000 as of September.
