Dearborn Police Say Report Of Person With A Gun Was A Hoax

DEARBORN (WWJ) - Some Dearborn students were held after school Wednesday due to a prank 911 call.

The children were about to be released for the day, but as a precaution were kept inside Bryant Middle School, on N. Vernon Street in the area of Telegraph Road and Cherry Hill, while residents were asked to stay away from the area.

The police-ordered lockdown was brief, however, and students were released for the day before 4 p.m.

It all started when dispatch got a call at around 2:30 p.m. about "a potentially life threatening situation" in the 800 block of Drexel; police telling WWJ's Sandra McNeill that the incident purportedly involved "a person with a gun."

Due to the nature of the call, a perimeter was established and the nearby school was placed on a temporally lockdown, police said.

Police were ultimately able to determine that the report was a hoax and an initial investigation identified it as a probable case of "swatting" — which is when someone makes a prank call to police giving someone else's address, just to see if the cops will show up.

The person responsible for the call was not immediately identified.

Dearborn police Chief Ronald Haddad wants to remind the public that police take all calls seriously, and any false or intentionally misleading claims not only place the public in danger, but can lead to criminal prosecution.

"We are grateful that officers were able to quickly and effectively respond to this incident without any injury to themselves or the public," Haddad added in a statement. "We will work diligently to identify the individual or individuals responsible and hold them accountable."

Anyone with information is asked to call Dearborn police at 313-943-2241.