Authorities are seeking the public’s help to find a person suspected of making a false police report about a school shooting Tuesday in Burbank.
Someone called the Burbank Police Department at 2:37 p.m. Tuesday and said multiple students has been shot in a classroom at John Burroughs High School at 1920 W. Clark Ave.
Officers responded and conducted an immediate and systematic search of the campus, police said. After conducting a thorough investigation, detectives were unable to locate any victims or evidence that a shooting occurred. The campus was deemed safe, and both staff and students were allowed to remain on campus as normal business operation resumed.
“Occasionally, the Burbank Police Department receives fake emergency calls involving reports of a shooting, stabbing or bomb threat, which are commonly referred to as `swatting’ incidents,” the department said in a statement. “These calls involve the action of making a false report of an emergency to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers, or Special Weapons and Tactics teams (SWAT), to a particular address… Fake or prank emergency reporting of an emergency is illegal and extremely dangerous.”
Anyone with information about the hoax was asked to contact Sgt. Brent Fekety of the BPD at 818-238-3240.