Tense moments after gun-on-campus call at McArthur High School
HOLLYWOOD - Students at McArthur High in Hollywood tell CBS4 about tense moments at school after a call came in of a shooting on campus.
"Security guards told us to go inside the gym, where they said there was a threat dealing with another person. It was call about a threat," one student told us.
While in the gym, officers came in heavily armed another student told CBS4. 'It was like 5 police officers, all them had guns, one had a big AR," he said.
Turns out it was a hoax, what's known as a "swatting" call.
Not a lot of students were here when it happened, Thursday is an early release day. "It gets frustrating because of, like when you see all those police, you see all the guns. You kinda get nervous," a student tells us
This is the second swatting incident at McArthur High since September — and a search of our files shows it's been happening a lot in Broward and Miami-Dade. About 3 weeks ago, more than half a dozen calls came in on the same day. "When we get these calls it's all hands on deck," said
Deanna Bettineschi with the Hollywood police department. We asked how serious calls like this are. She said today dozens of officers were on the scene — pulling police from all over the city for something that wasn't even real. "We want to make sure our officers are there, that we can get as many officers there as we can to through each hall, each classroom and clear the area and make sure they're safe," she said.
Detectives are working to find out where the call came from.
