Police scanner shows panicked response to Villanova shooting ‘hoax’

Late Thursday afternoon, police rushed to Villanova University over a report of an active shooter — later determined to be a hoax — searching for someone who did not exist and at one point misidentifying a victim of a gunshot wound who had not been shot, according to police scanner recordings.

Just after 4:30 p.m., police broadcast a warning about “a subject with an automatic rifle” at the Catholic university just outside Philadelphia. The source of that information was not clear. But a chaotic manhunt soon erupted on the suburban campus.

Within minutes, officers were searching for a 6-foot-tall, white male near John F. Scarpa Hall, home to Villanova’s law school.

“Active shooter! Villanova University! Scarpa Hall!” an officer chirped across the radio.

(On Thursday night, Delaware County issued a statement saying “Multiple calls were received in which gunshot-like sounds were heard in the background, which are under investigation at this time.)

Squad cars flooded the campus where students were attending an orientation to kick off the semester. Video posted on social media showed pandemonium as police arrived on scene — overturned chairs, panicked screams, students seeking shelter.

By 4:37 p.m., officers were hunting for a suspect. They thought they had him pinned down inside the law school’s library.

“I can see him inside from outside the building,” an official said on the radio. “[I’m] outside the library.”

» READ MORE: Active shooter report at Villanova was a 'cruel hoax,' university says; students describe chaotic scene

Sirens blared. Backup police demanded directions to the scene of the reported rampage. SWAT units were called in to form a perimeter around the building.

Inside the law school, police found no shooter.

“Nothing there,” an officer said.

Officers breached the campus building and went room by room, through the cafeteria, then the second floor, reporting “clear” as they went.

At one point, police relayed that there was no evidence of gunshots inside the building. And yet officers then reported stumbling upon a gunshot wound victim: “We have one victim at this time, EMS is bringing him out.”

“What’s the nature of the injury on the victim?” an apparent commander asked.

“It’s a GSW,” an officer said, shorthand for a gunshot wound.

Police struggled to track down the reported victim. They found students huddled in the university bathrooms, seeking shelter. But evidence leading to a shooter was thin.

Shortly before 5 p.m., Radnor Township police posted on social media that the active shooter search remained ongoing. About 45 minutes later, the department confirmed there were, in fact, no victims.

The university lifted the shelter-in-place order around 6 p.m.

Officials then established that the initial report of the shooter had been an act of swatting — a hoax in which someone calls in a fake emergency, such as an active shooter, to induce panic.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, in a statement, said he called in the state police to assist with the investigation.

Staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.