‘Kind of nerve-racking’: Swatting incident causes lockdown on Doane campus

CRETE, Neb. (KLKN) — A swatting incident put Doane University on lockdown Tuesday.

Just before 9 a.m., the Crete Police Department received a report of a possible armed person in the bathroom of the communications building on Doane’s campus.

“Immediately, there were some inconsistencies with the call that we thought may lead to this being a swatting issue,” Police Chief Gary Young said.

Within minutes of arriving on the scene, the Crete Police Department and Saline County Sheriff’s Office searched the buildings before giving the all-clear about an hour later.

“We are grateful for the rapid response from the Crete Police Department, Saline County Sheriff’s Office, and for the cooperation of our students, faculty and staff,” Russ Hewitt, Doane University’s public safety director, said in a press release. “We will continue to monitor the situation in collaboration with local law enforcement.”

About 15 officers responded to the scene before confirming it was a “swatting” situation, a false report intended to trigger a large emergency response.

Young said Crete Police are working to figure out who made the call. They received the report from another department.

“With technology, you can spoof calls from all over the world and spoof phone numbers,” he said. “We’re working closely with the Nebraska City Police Department to get their information and see if there are any leads that can be developed from that point.”

Giovanni Castaneda, a student at Doane, said he was experiencing all kinds of emotions.

“Especially on the first day of school, it’s kind of nerve-recking getting a notification like that, that there’s a lockdown,” he said. “I felt more safe getting those alerts from Doane, and they kept messaging us 10 to 15 minutes after, making sure we’re notified on what’s going on so that was really helpful in keeping me cool.”

The president of the university, Roger Hughes, said the whole situation went very smoothly.

“It’s just one of those things unfortunately that we have to deal with on campuses nowadays,” he said. “There’s a safety protocol and a lot of universities have experienced much worse than this. I’m extremely thankful it was a non-incident. Our response was miraculous.”