NEW HAVEN, Conn. — An anonymous caller threatened to harm students at Yale University early Tuesday morning but turned out to be a swatting incident when those threats were deemed false.
Yale Police Chief Anthony Campbell said that at 12:16 a.m., Yale police got a call from an unknown man saying he had seriously harmed a female student and that she may be dead. The caller said he had a knife and hunting rifle and intended to harm others. He said that if officers tried to find him, he would shoot them. He told the dispatcher that he was near Bingham Hall.
Yale police immediately set up a perimeter around Old Campus. At 12:34 a.m., the caller told an officer that he was in a dorm room in Bingham. Dispatch pinged the phone to determine its location but was unsuccessful and concluded it was a burner phone.
Yale police coordinated with the Office of Emergency Management and put a "shelter in place alert" out to all students. Yale officers, with the assistance of the New Haven Police Department, inspected and cleared entryways A, B, C, and D of Bingham Hall. The basement and bathrooms were also inspected and cleared. No signs of suspicious activity were found.
During this time, a Yale police officer was in telephone contact with the caller every 10 to 15 minutes. The caller knew of the Bingham Hall floorplan and claimed there was a bomb in a bathroom. Yale and New Haven police bomb squads cleared bathrooms on all floors and stairwells, as well as any of the open doors for all four entryways.
The caller used numerous racial slurs at the Black police officers and said he would harm the officer he was speaking to if he found out he was Black.
Yale dispatch and Yale security reviewed card swipes and video to gain information about the incident. At about 2:45 a.m., the caller told the Yale officer that he would begin shooting in eight minutes. An armed officer was positioned on each of the floors in Bingham Hall.
The caller provided conflicting information, which led police to believe it was a "swatting" or prank call.
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Police continued to investigate this as a real threat to ensure the safety of the Yale community. At 3 a.m., police determined that these threats were false and gave an “all clear” alert and updated the community that the investigation was continuing but that there was no immediate threat.
Right after giving the “all clear,” someone who is believed to be a different caller from the same phone number reported a shirtless white male running with a wooden rifle in the Harkness hallways. Yale police dispatched officers but found no suspicious activity.
There is now an ongoing investigation by the Investigative Services Division of the YPD, the NHPD, and partners at the FBI. Yale police have not determined any immediate threat(s) to their campus.
Yale police ask that if you have any information regarding this incident, to call the Yale Police at 203-432-4400 or send an anonymous text tip through their LiveSafe app.
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