Robert Katz, web editor-in-chief
Beverly was placed on lockdown after the Beverly Hills Police Department received a call from a male claiming to be 16 years old and held hostage by a gunman at about 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, March 6, according to the Beverly Hills Courier.
After multiple helicopters circled the school and a SWAT team investigated the campus, the incident was deemed a possible hoax by the BHPD. Students were released from lockdown at about 4:15 p.m.
According to assistant principal Toni Staser, the alleged student who called 911 was not a Beverly student.
A BHPD officer said that “[the students] did an incredible job” of reacting to the lockdown.
Multiple similar reports of “hostage situations” have been received throughout the country in a possible wave of 911 calls known as “swatting,” a practice of tricking an emergency service into dispatching an emergency response.
More information will be posted as the situation develops.