Hoax Calls Claiming Hostage Situation Draw Massive Emergency Response

Two phone calls about a hostage situation at Mugar Memorial Library Friday morning drew a massive response by BUPD, Boston Police, Boston Fire Department, State Police, and EMTs. The calls were later deemed a hoax. Photo by Cydney Scott

A hoax call to Boston University Police from a man claiming to have guns and explosives forced police to evacuate Mugar Memorial Library and the George Sherman Union for nearly two hours early Friday morning.

In the first call, just before 8:30 a.m., the caller told the BUPD that he had barricaded himself inside a room at Mugar, 771 Commonwealth Avenue, with guns and explosives.

“The call came from a male individual stating that he was barricaded inside Room 420 on the fourth floor, and he mentioned the room was booby-trapped,” William B. Evans, Boston police commissioner, said at a press conference in front of the GSU after the incident. “A short time later there was another call that he had just shot a hostage inside that room.”

BUPD and Boston Police responded according to active shooter protocol and secured the fourth floor, finding nothing. By that time the library and the GSU had been evacuated and the area around both buildings blocked off. A more methodical sweep of the entire library turned up no problems, and the buildings were reopened at about 10:25 a.m.

The caller’s number was blocked, but police are working to trace the calls, said Scott Paré, BUPD acting chief and BU deputy director of public safety. Evans said the Boston Police Department’s Boston Regional Intelligence Center is leading that effort.

The man had an accent that police have not identified, but there was no political content to the calls, Paré said. He also said that there was an actual person on the line, not a recording, and that the man answered questions from the BUPD officer who answered. Police responding to the library believed they had a real active-shooter situation, Paré said.

“In the last few years we’ve had a lot of hoax robocalls, but this one was so genuine,” Evans said. “I apologize to the students who might have been detoured, but it was so detailed that we had to take it seriously.”

In a letter to the University community, President Robert A. Brown thanked Evans and the Boston Police, Fire, and EMS Departments, the BUPD, and the Massachusetts State Police “for the swift and coordinated response that ensured the safety of our community and made possible an early (and reassuring) resolution of this situation.” He also encouraged students to update their parents, “who may have picked up on early news reports and are likely concerned.”

Joint active-shooter response training has been conducted in recent weeks by the BUPD, Boston Police, State Police and the Brookline Police, Paré said, and “actually in the same exact building, so it worked perfectly for us.”

Police and other emergency vehicles lined Comm Ave for much of the morning, media helicopters circled overhead, and the area around both buildings was blocked by officers and yellow caution tape. Traffic on Comm Ave was shut down briefly in both directions and sidewalks were closed on the north side of the avenue from the BU Bridge to Marsh Plaza.

“You can’t take these hoaxes without checking them out thoroughly,” Evans said. “Unfortunately a lot of this is going on around the country, and that’s why we took it seriously.…If we found out who did it, we’ll prosecute them.”