The school shooting hoax calls that flooded districts across Maine during a single day last fall likely came from one internet phone number, a new investigation has found.
The 22 calls to schools, police departments and emergency dispatch on Nov. 15, 2022, started around 7:45 a.m. The caller said there was an active shooter at each school and the calls sent schools into lockdowns and caused confusion throughout the state. The first call came into York High School, with the last threat coming in around 10:24 a.m. to the Calais Police Department.
Calls were also made to Sanford, Portland, Brewer, Belfast, Brunswick, Ellsworth, Fort Fairfield, Gardiner, Houlton, Madawaska, Rockland, Lincoln and Winslow.
The investigation is the first insight into who is responsible for the nearly two dozen phone calls that terrorized students, teachers, staff and parents throughout the state as they believed school shootings were in progress.
The calls came from one voice over internet number, or VOiP, through Canadian company TextNow, an investigation from The Washington Post found.
The Maine Department of Public Safety investigated the hoaxes at the time with federal law enforcement. All future updates will come from the FBI, spokesperson Shannon Moss said.
FBI spokesperson Kristen Setera declined to comment.
The calls, known as “swatting,” say there is a nonexistent crime, which causes police to send a large response. The calls saying there is an active shooting are different from threats where police have time to investigate.
The 911 calls in Maine said there was an armed gunman in black in various locations at the schools, the Bangor Daily News previously reported. The calls to Sanford said the man was carrying a long rifle.
Before students learned the threats were fake that day, teenagers at Sanford High School barricaded doors and hid under desks. Others sat through lockdowns in darkened classrooms, sending texts to their parents, saying they loved them.
After the shooting hoaxes, students told the BDN that they were becoming accustomed to living through threats and moving on, but that the fear remains.
The hoax calls in Maine may be related to numerous such calls across the country in recent months, with calls in six states coming from the TextNow number, The Washington Post investigation claimed. It found that the calls came from an internet protocol address in Ethiopia, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the calls were made in the country because people can buy IP addresses.
