LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – Threats directed toward Sparrow Hospital made for a hectic scene as the building went on lockdown, and police filled the grounds.
Lansing police say they believe the threats were swatting calls. “Swatting” is when someone calls or emails a false threat to get a big police response.
“We don’t know what would’ve happened, if anything would have happened, and I’m just glad that everyone is safe and nobody got harmed,” said Sparrow employee Jacob Austin.
“I haven’t seen any real threats since I’ve been working here”
At around, 3:30 a.m. on Monday, officers responded after getting two threats.
“There was a threat that the hospital was going to get potentially blown up, and that someone was there with an automatic weapon. So anytime we get a call like that we are going to send everybody from our department,” said Assistant Chief of the Lansing Police Department Robert Backus.
They came out in force. Along with other law enforcement agencies in the area.
After searching the hospital for a few hours, the threats were deemed not credible.
Around 6:30 a.m., the all-clear was given.
Swatting seems to be happening more and more in Michigan, like the shooting hoax at Okemos high school in February and a bomb threat this past weekend at Twelve Oaks Mall.
“These types of calls are very resource-intensive calls they take place at facilities or organizations that tend to have a lot of value to the community and with a large building like a hospital, that means we are going to be there for several hours perhaps,” said Backus.
LPD said swatting calls are a form of terrorism and can carry a 20-year felony, but they have to find the person responsible first.
“And so it is a long investigation we use a lot of our partners, be it state local, and federal partnerships to make sure that we do absolutely everything we can to find out who committed this and then hold them accountable,” said Backus.
