School Hoax Incident

Response to “HOAX Active Shooter E-911 Call
The recent “hoax” calls for a possible active school shooter at Halls High School on January 25, 2024, just after 11:30 am, was briefly in the news last week. Thankfully, no child, facultymember, citizen, or officer was injured due to those calls. We think the juveniles involved felt this would be funny and inconsequential. This type of crime is dangerous to everyone in the community and highly wasteful of emergency/first responder resources.
A review of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office response to the fake active shooter call showed that seventeen (17) on-dutyPatrol Officers and eighteen (18) Detectives and Supervisors responded to the Halls Middle School.
These officers cleared the Middle/High School campus interior, outbuildings, and Halls Elementary, which doesn’t share a campus with the Middle/High School. They ensured no active threat at any school and that the students and faculty were safe.
In addition to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office response, support personnel from other agencies surrounding Knox County arrived, including The Knoxville Police Department, Union County Sheriff’s Office, and various federal agencies. Emergency Personnel from the Rural Metro Fire Department were on the scene with Four (4) Fire Engines, One (1) Ladder Fire Truck, an R/M Battalion Fire Chief, and two (2) quick response fire vehicles. AMR Ambulance Service had one (1) Critical Care Ambulance and two (2) Primary Ambulances staffed with A-EMTs and Paramedics, as well as two (2) EMS supervisors and their quick response vehicles.

The response was incredible. We are thankful this was not a “real active shooter’. However, all of the emergency responders were “out of service” while at this scene. It creates delayed response ti mes for anyone having an actual emergency. HOAĞX Calls and threats of any nature to a school are a crime and will be punished accordingly.