Schools in at least 19 counties including in Chicago, dealt with reports of active shooters which turned out to be false as of Wednesday afternoon, officials said.
As of 3 p.m. Illinois State Police said law enforcement in 19 counties dealt with “threats directed at schools,” totaling 21 calls in 21 cities.
“Responders have not located any actual threats as a result of these calls,” ISP said in a statement.
Cities and counties include: Champaign, Champaign County, Springfield, Sangamon County, Chicago in Cook County; Freeport in Stephenson County; Aurora in DuPage County; Marion in Williamson County; Carbondale in Jackson County; Rockford in Winnebago County; Murphysboro in Jackson County; Mount Vernon in Jefferson County; Vienna in Johnson County; Dixon in Lee County; Decatur in Macon County; Granite City in Madison County; Collinsville in Madison County; Centralia in Marion County; Bloomington in McLean County; Jacksonville in Morgan County; Peoria in Peoria County; Pittsfield in Pike County and Eldorado in Saline County, state police said.
The ISP Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center had no information concerning credible threats related to school safety, according to the statement, which urged public and private security staffers to “remain vigilant and report all suspicious behavior to local police agencies.”
A large police presence was at East High School in Rockford Wednesday morning investigating a report of a shooting that appeared to be false, police said on Twitter.
Laura Maher, a spokeswoman for the Rockford police department later said, “at this time, we are working on confirming details, but it looks to be a false report.” Later, Rockford police tweeted that no shots were fired and there were no shooting victims.
Swatting means dangerous and illegal fake calls about an active shooter situation, typically at a school, according to the statement, which added that state and national intelligence agencies have seen a pattern of these fake calls, each call is taken seriously.
