Boston Police Department documents related to the false shooting report Sept. 11 show repeated calls to 911 with conflicting information adding confusion to the law enforcement response.
Call logs show 12 calls to 911 between 3:42 p.m. and 5:09 p.m. Campus police sent the first safety alert about the residence halls at 4:01 p.m.
According to the BPD incident reports, the first caller reported hearing shots fired at the residence hall. The copy of the report provided in response to The Mass Media’s public records request redacts the number of shots reported.
“All available Boston Police assets responded to the scene as well as UMass Boston Police, Massachusetts State Police, Boston Fire, and Boston EMS,” the report said. Once on scene, officers were unable to locate the original caller, and they did not answer when dispatchers attempted to call back, according to dispatch logs.
Dispatch logs indicate that police believed there to be an active shooter on the 10th floor at 3:51 p.m.. The logs also show a “FULL SWAT CALL OUT” at 3:56 p.m..
While SWAT teams cleared the east residence hall, police received another report of “POSSIBLE SHOTS FIRED” in Campus Center, clarified moments later as “SHOTS FIRED DUNKIN DONUTS.” Once in the building, officers updated that there was “NO ONE REPORTING SHOTS FIRED” at Dunkin Donuts.
One 911 call from a student in a classroom repeated claims of shots fired at campus center. Once the call was handed off to the professor, dispatchers relayed to police that “NO STUDENTS IN ROOM HEARD OR SAW SHOOTER OR SHOTS” and they were repeating reports from other students received via text messages.
Another person called to report seeing a person in the hallway with no visible weapons.
A later call reported a suspicious object “BETWEEN HEALY BLDG AND CAMPUS CENTER.” The description of the item is redacted from the report, but the logs note that it is unknown if it belonged to a student and that there were no wires seen and no smoke or fire visible. SWAT and K9 units were assigned to assist, as was a technician in a bomb suit.
Logs also show that the UMass Boston Police Department was “ADVISED TO NOTIFY STUDENTS TO GO INTO LOCKDOWN” at 3:57 p.m.. The first alert about the event, sent 10 minutes earlier at 3:47 p.m. was labeled “avoid the area.” The next was categorized as “public safety threat” and advised residents to stay in their rooms, but the university never sent a message using the official shelter in place designation.
UMass Boston’s emergency alerting system categorizes messages into one of four categories: “Avoid Area,” “Public Safety Threat,” “Shelter in Place” or “Evacuation,” according to the emergency alerting system webpage.
Director of Communications DeWayne Lehman declined to comment as to why a “shelter in place” alert was not sent. According to the emergency alert policy, the chief of police makes the decision to send public safety-related alerts. UMBPD dispatchers, who are required to undergo regular training and monthly testing to ensure they can use the system properly in an emergency, then send the alert.
The alert system also includes template messages for “Gun shots reported” and “Unconfirmed Bomb Threat reported.” Neither template was used.
