HOAX PUT CAMPUS ON ALERT
SUNY Shooting
Threat Was Made
On Hacked Phone
By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special To www.ALLOTSEGO.com
ONEONTA – The threat of gun violence on the SUNY Oneonta campus this afternoon was made over a student’s phone that had been hacked, according to University Police.
At 4:38 p.m., a mental health crisis hotline in New York City alerted SUNY Oneonta and shared a chat message, allegedly from a female student at the college, indicating that the student intended to shoot people on the SUNY campus. The school deemed the threat credible, and at 5:30 p.m., put a “shelter-in-place” directive out to the faculty, staff and students.
“This is the first time anything like this has ever happened here,” said campus Police Chief Jennifer Fila. “We had to go through a lot of steps before we deemed it a credible threat.”
The student was located on campus, and subsequent investigation revealed that she had reported to Oneonta Police that her phone had been hacked. When police located her, she was working with the college’s Information Technology Services to address the hack. She was not placed under arrest and no charges were filed.
“All signs point to this student being the victim of a cyber-crime,” said Fila.
Based on the interview with the student, the shelter-in-place order at 6:14 p.m. University police are now working with Oneonta Police, Otsego County Law Enforcement officials, the FBI, State Police and the NYPD to investigate further.
