Children’s Hospital Colorado Shooting News: Children’s Hospital Colorado Lockdown Ends After Police Determine Shooting Report Was Swatting Incident
Children’s Hospital Colorado was temporarily placed under lockdown Friday morning, September 18, after police received a report of a possible shooting at the facility, prompting an immediate law-enforcement response.
The Aurora Police Department responded to the hospital’s Anschutz Medical Campus in the 13100 block of East 16th Avenue shortly before 8:20 a.m. after receiving the report.
Officers quickly began responding to the reported threat and securing the area while hospital patients and staff remained inside. The incident caused concern as police worked to determine whether an actual shooting had occurred.
Authorities subsequently determined that the report was a swatting incident. Swatting involves someone making a false emergency report, often claiming that a serious crime or immediate threat is taking place, in an attempt to trigger a significant law-enforcement response.
Police confirmed that patients and staff were safe and that there were no confirmed shootings or injuries connected to the incident.
The false report nevertheless resulted in a substantial emergency response at the medical campus as officers treated the initial information as a potentially serious threat.
Aurora police said they were working with federal partners as part of a follow-up investigation into the false report. Investigators will work to determine the source of the call and identify those responsible.
The incident serves as another example of the disruption and danger that false emergency reports can create, particularly when they target hospitals and other facilities where large numbers of people may be present.
With the reported threat determined to be unfounded, attention now turns to the investigation into who made the false report and why.
