BCA: At least 8 Minnesota schools targeted in swatting attempts

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is issuing a warning after fake school shooting calls sent at least eight schools into lockdown over the past two days.

The practice is known as swatting -- an attempt to bring the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address -- and it is considered a form of harassment.

Police say a 911 dispatcher who took a call Monday about a gunman inside Banfield Elementary School in Austin even heard gunshots in the background. Similar situations happened within the same half hour at schools in Bemidji, Alexandria and Albert Lea. 

Then on Tuesday, the caller targeted schools in Ely, Eveleth, Duluth and Hibbing.

The BCA says that all of the calls appeared to have come from the same person using voice over IP.

In 2022, Minnesota saw 27 hoax school shooting calls -- 17 of them were in September.