OU’s swatting event was a hoax, but the trauma it caused was real

Run. Hide. Fight.

Those were the words that ended the first of several text updates from OU’s emergency alert system on the night of April 7. 

The Norman Police Department had received calls that appeared to be coming from OU’s campus. The caller told police there was a shooting at the Bizzell Memorial Library and that one of the caller’s friends had been shot. And in secondary calls to Norman dispatch, gunshots can be heard. 

But as it turns out, it was a swatting incident — that is, a big hoax.