Male with ‘foreign accent’ made Utah hoax school shooting calls, police say

Stock image | Photo by Chalabala/iStock/Getty Images Plus, St. George News

SALT LAKE CITY — As state and local police continue to investigate a series of hoax school shooting calls made on Wednesday, prompting a large police response in multiple Utah cities, officials say all the calls were made by the same male who had a “foreign accent.”

Police from Box Elder to Utah County, and in areas such as Grand and Garfield counties, responded to 13 calls between 9:30 a.m. and noon on Wednesday claiming that an active shooter was in a school.

On Thursday, the Utah Department of Public Safety said all the calls were made by someone with a foreign accent, though spokeswoman Hillary Koellner said she did not know what nationality the accent resembled.

Each call was similar but varied just a little, she said, meaning investigators are looking at the likelihood that each call was live and not a pre-recorded message. In all 13 cases, a male called the general police dispatch numbers of an area — not 911 — and claimed he was hiding inside the school with others who were wounded from being shot by a white male, Koellner said.

Read the full story here:  KSL News.

Written by PAT REAVY, KSL.com.

Copyright KSL.com.

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