Police arrived at CU Boulder’s Norlin Library on Monday afternoon in response to a report of shots fired outside the building, to find students who were uncertain why the armed officers were there.
Officials later said the call, which came in around 4:45 p.m., was a hoax — one of a string of “swatting” incidents around the country.
The call led to building evacuations and a campus-wide shelter-in-place order, but ultimately there was no threat to the campus, CU police said.
Freshman Emily Hester was on an upper floor of the Norlin Library at the time. She said that she and other students were near the windows and saw police cars pull up.
A few moments later, police officers ran into the room carrying firearms.
“They didn’t say anything to us. So we kind of sat still, didn’t really do anything until we went to the stairwell. We walked down, and police told us to get out.”
Hester said police asked students on their way out if they’d heard anything. They had not.
“It was a little nerve-wracking, but for the most part, I stayed pretty calm and the people around me stayed pretty calm.”
Swatting is the act of making a false report of a serious crime, causing police to respond.
In addition to evacuating the library, CU police evacuated Sewall Hall and issued a campus-wide shelter in place order and told the public to avoid the area of the library. The East Campus was not affected.
Students who were outside were directed to walk away from the library area by officers. Most were taking photos or talking on their phones.
At 5:28, the CUPD announced that it was investigating a report of shots fired.
About that same time, a couple of blocks south of the library, students had gathered outside the Center for Academic Success and Engagement building, watching as more than a dozen emergency vehicles were parked just south of the building.
The CUPD, the Boulder Police Department, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office and the Boulder Fire Department responded to the call.
Many students were waiting for rides, trying to figure out how to get home, since buses appeared to have been blocked by the police activity.
Grace Stringfellow, second year doctoral student in oboe performance, noted that she went to CU as an undergrad.
“I have been here for … the King Soopers shooting, unfortunately, so my first thought wasn’t very positive,” she said.
Like other students, Stringfellow wasn’t quite sure at first what was going on.
“I think they may have updated as they knew, but I would have preferred to at least have known ‘why am I sheltering’ a little bit more than ‘just stay put.’ ”
She said that she was scheduled to teach class after the shelter-in-place was lifted but that most students couldn’t show up.
The shelter-in-pace order was lifted at 5:40 p.m.
Students who left items in the library said they couldn’t go back in, so they couldn’t go home. As of 6 p.m., according to a CU announcement, officers were still working to clear the library.
At 8:30 p.m., CU announced that the library would remain closed for the night but that students who left belongings there could return to the library as late as 11 p.m., to meet police at the east-side doors and be escorted inside. Norlin will reopen for normal business hours Tuesday. Students may return then and go to the security office on the second floor to retrieve belongings.
The incident at CU comes during its first full week of classes for the fall semester. It joins several other colleges and universities that were targeted during orientation or the first week of classes with false reports of active shooters , including Villanova University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, according to the Associated Press.
“Itap not very shocking with everything going down in America right now that there would be a shooting here, if there was one,” said Yozmi Ramos, a sophomore studying public health. “My thinking was like, when it will be, not if it would happen.”
