As you may have heard, there have been numerous shooting hoaxes on college campuses as of late. These shooting alerts have proved to be hoaxes, but in the moment, there was much confusion on what was really happening. More specifically, I am closely tied to the shooting hoax at the University of South Carolina, through my brother.

According to the University of South Carolina, around 6:30 pm on August 24, a male made a call saying “active shooter at the library…active shooter” with loud gunfire going on in the background. It turns out this threat was nothing more than a “swatting” incident. The individual that made this call was a part of online teen crime group called “Purgatory.” Unfortunately, the damage of misinformation, and fear had already taken place.

In an interview with my brother, Eric Schaumloffel, a junior at USC, I learned specific details on what happened that day. I started off the interview with asking about where he was, at the time of the event. In his response he said, “I was at the Darla Moore School of Business, a 5-minute walk from Thomas Cooper Library.”

He learned about the threat from a text message he received. The alert claimed there was an active shooter at the library at 6:34 pm. He also heard an alert blaring from a loudspeaker saying, “active shooter on campus.”

In this moment, he described being in “a state of shock. I was worried about what was going to happen. I was praying my friends were out of harm’s way.”

Next, he received a message that claimed the suspect was a 6-foot, white male wearing black pants. “This caused a lot of buzz and rumors amongst other students” he went on to say. “We all began looking out of the windows to see if we could identify the shooter.”

He then told me that he saw the locations of some of his friends. Some were at Greek Life Chapter, nearby apartments, and even the library. The friends at the library barricaded themselves. “We were all lying flat on the floor,” a friend of his said.

He found out the incident was over via text message, and that the threat was a hoax over an email. “I was thankful it was over,” he said. “I immediately called Mom and told her it was a “swatting incident.”

I then asked him if there has been an increase in police presence since the event. In which he said, “there has been a slight increase in campus security officers.” He claims that he still feels safe, but he is bothered by how easy it is for anyone to get access to the inside of buildings. He said places like the Darla Moore School of Business, and dining halls require a keycard (student ID) to get access inside.

According to my brother, the President of USC had contacted him and other students regarding the incident. He said he received an email that night. The contents of the email applauded students and staff about how they handled the situation.

My brother believed that at the core of this incident was the misinformation being passed around. As pictured earlier, “The Umbrella Man”, was just a student casually walking back to his dorm room with an umbrella, but because of the chaos many assumed he was the shooter.

“We need to be careful about what we say and post online, before we decipher the facts and the truth” he offered up. This incident goes to show the importance of remaining calm even in a chaotic instance like this.