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Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach targeted: Active shooter or swatting? Alarming details revealed
Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach: An active shooter report at an Orange County hospital turned out to be a swatting incident.
A hospital in Orange County reported an active shooter, but it was actually a fake and a "swatting" episode, said authorities, as per KTLA5.
What is swatting?
The Department of Homeland Security defines "swatting" as a "malicious act that can involve placing false emergency calls to emergency responders, often reporting a (false) severe, ongoing crisis at a specific location."
“The goat of ‘swatting’ is to provoke a significant law enforcement response, create chaos and [they can] potentially [result] in violence,” DHS states.
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What happened at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach?
The Newport Beach Police Department said in a statement that police were sent to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach after receiving a report of gunfire.
According to the NBPD, "officers arrived on the scene right away and searched the facility thoroughly. “It was determined that the report of shooter was unfounded and part of a ‘swatting’ incident.”
Police mentioned that another local hospital reported a similar incident Monday evening. That facility's name was not revealed.
Officials on Hoag Hospital swatting incident
Although officials stressed that "swatting" calls are "illegal, dangerous, and disruptive," Newport Beach police say there is no current threat to Hoag Hospital or the Newport Beach community.
“We take these incidents seriously and will continue working with our regional law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” NBPD stated.
False 911 calls can instill fear and panic, resulting in a huge police reaction with potentially fatal results. In March, Loma Linda University's Children's Hospital was put under lockdown after someone called officials and threatened to carry out a mass shooting. Authorities discovered that it was a hoax call.
In 2018, a man from Los Angeles received a sentence of almost 20 years in jail for making numerous swatting calls, one of which resulted in the death of an unarmed man who answered his front door in Kansas.
