JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Police are investigating who made the “hoax” call that prompted a lockdown at First Coast High School Monday afternoon, according to Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Duval County School Police.
At 1:46 p.m., a caller blocked his phone number and used JSO’s non-emergency line to report that he was in a school bathroom with a firearm, and intent on hurting people, according to a report from JSO.
Officials said the call ended with the person saying he would kill himself, and the receiving officer heard what sounded like a gunshot before it disconnected. The officer added that it sometimes sounded like the caller was playing a recording of a woman crying and an alarm siren.
News4JAX Crime and Safety Analyst Tom Hackney said the caller went to great lengths to make the call believable.
“It’s more than just a crank call, this was an elaborate plan maybe with recorded sounds, and other factors to sell this,” Hackney said.
Police arrived at that school at 1:51 p.m. and made a thorough search and they did not find a firearm, a suspect, or anyone with injuries. The students were released from the school after the search and police said there was nothing to back up the validity of the call.
Hackney said it’s complicated to catch a caller like this because of how technology has advanced.
“It’s actually harder, more difficult to track the phone, they have the burner phones, from the call coming from an unknown number to call spoofing,” Hackney said.
JSO patrol chief Jaime Eason said the call appeared to be a hoax, but no matter what, they take calls like this seriously.
“We take them as real calls especially when children are involved in schools...so if we do find a suspect and we are going to to a thorough criminal investigation,” Eason said. “There could be criminal charges brought up on that part.”
Eason added that there were a lot of rumors about what was happening at the school and said it’s important to let the police make sure everyone is safe before coming to a conclusion.
“The last thing that we want to do is, God forbid, we have a situation or this was a legitimate situation of a shooting and we have parents that self-deploy into the school and were causing even more chaos for the officers in a very dangerous situation,” Eason said. “If we could push pause and just let the officers do their job then we’re going to push it out as quickly as possible to the media and the parents as well.”
A name was given to the police, but they said it likely wasn’t a student. JSO will take the lead on tracking the phone from which the call was made. Detectives said the manufactured sound effects could help them catch the person responsible.
“The sound effects could be identified by a website from where he downloaded it from,” Hackney said. “A trail of where you are and a trail of where you may have been, and who may have downloaded that. It’s not hard for investigators to sift through that.”