The FBI is now leading an investigation into a false threat made at Mercer University, following a series of similar incidents reported across the United States this month, according to the Mercer Police Department.
Mercer Police Chief Haley Beckham stated that federal investigators are examining details related to the call, including the caller’s identity, phone number, motive, and any possible links to other recent swatting cases nationwide. “The FBI has been instrumental throughout the country responding to school shootings, and they were very, very helpful to us, and are going to be helpful to the community, the state of Georgia and the country for determining who is behind this,” Beckham said. “We’ve turned everything over to them.”
On Wednesday afternoon, two separate calls reported an “active threat” on Mercer’s Macon campus. The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office received one call about the alleged threat while another was made directly to a university department. Both calls were then transferred to Mercer Police, which prompted a campus-wide sweep and lockdown involving local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.
Authorities have not yet identified who placed the calls or their motives. It also remains unclear whether technology was used to hide the caller’s identity. “I’m unaware of (if) there was a cloak of the number,” Beckham said. “But in these situations, no matter if it is a real person or if it is (artificial intelligence), the response is still the same.”
Beckham referenced a previous incident on August 8 when someone concealed their identity during a similar false report near Perry High School.
With control of the case now handed over to federal authorities, Beckham indicated there would be no further updates from her department. She explained: “Swatting is the act of making a false emergency call to provoke a large scale police response, and that’s exactly what happened yesterday.”
