Shelter-in-place order at Bloomfield Hills High School lifted after apparent 'swatting' call prompts large police response

BLOOMFIELD TWP. (WWJ) — An investigation is underway after a phoned-in phony threat led to a hefty police response at Bloomfield Hills High School on Wednesday.

Bloomfield Hills police officials said at around 1 p.m. on Oct. 16 that a shelter-in-place order had been issued, and no one was allowed to enter or leave the school while they investigated.

No threat was found, and the order was lifted about half-an-hour later.

Melanie Burke told WWJ Newsradio 950's Tim Pamplin that her son, a sophomore at the school, was eating his lunch when it happened.

"Everybody started getting up, and some people started running," Burke said. "And one of the lunch ladies told him to exit the building, so he ran over to the Starbucks."

According to the Bloomfield Hills PD, a "threat of violence" came in at around 12:30 p.m. via the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline, and the school was immediately notified.

"Every police officer was immediately dispatched and they began searching the high school," police said, in a news release. "A complete sweep of the high school was conducted; no credible threats or weapons were located. While we are very early in this investigation, initial information leads us to believe that this was a 'swatting' incident."

Swatting is “the deliberate and malicious act of reporting a false crime or emergency to evoke an aggressive response (often a SWAT team) from a law enforcement agency to a target's residence or place of work to harass and intimidate them,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Reporting from the scene, Pamplin said dozens of parents were outside the school waiting to pick up their children. Police officials said students were being released early for the rest of the day.

Parents were asked to respond to Kirk in Hills Church and avoid the High School to keep traffic clear.

Police are now working to track down the person who made the call.

"The Bloomfield Township Police Department takes all threats to our schools extremely seriously. We will continue to investigate this case using every resource available. We are thankful to all of our area departments for their willingness to respond and assist us in this very serious call," police said.

As a precaution, police said they would deploy extra patrols to schools in the district through the end of the week.

This is a developing story. Stay tuned to WWJ Newsradio 950 for the latest updates as they become available. >>> LISTEN LIVE!