Campus Alert Archive
Grove City

A Computer-Generated Voice Locked Down Grove City College's Library for 3 Hours on September 28's Multi-Campus Swatting Day

PAswattingemergency notificationhigh confidence
Confirmed HoaxDetermined to be a hoax. The institutional response is documented because it reveals how the alert system performed under a perceived real threat.

On Sunday, September 28, 2025, at approximately 4:00 PM EDT, Grove City Borough Police received a call claiming a man with a rifle in a blue shirt was inside the Grove City College library. The campus went into a 3-hour precautionary lockdown while Pennsylvania State Police, Grove City PD, the Mercer County Critical Incident Response Team, and Campus Safety swept the library. No shooter was ever found. State Police later confirmed it was a computer-generated swatting call and that multiple Pennsylvania campuses received similar calls the same day, including West Chester, Millersville, and Shippensburg.

Alerts
3
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Grove City College
Private Bachelors · PA
~2,400 studentsGrove City College Campus Safety Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

3 messages in sequence · 3 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTEmail
Verified verbatimCBS Pittsburgh quoting verbatim Grove City College Campus Safety alert sent at 4:44 PM EDT101 chars
This was reported near the Buhl Library. Please stay inside and follow directions of Law Enforcement.
Sent at 4:44 PM EDT, approximately 15 minutes after a preliminary 4:29 PM alert that named the situation 'potentially dangerous'
Buhl Library is the central library of Grove City College's small 2,400-student campus
The 102-character message contains no shelter-in-place directive on its own — it relies on the earlier 4:29 PM 'potentially dangerous situation' alert as context
UPDATEEmail+55 min
Verified verbatimCBS Pittsburgh quoting verbatim Grove City College Campus Safety alert sent at 5:39 PM EDT143 chars
Campus Safety has issued a precautionary lockdown of the Grove City College campus. Shelter in place until further notice. Details will follow.
Sent at 5:39 PM EDT, escalating to a formal campus-wide lockdown nearly 70 minutes after the initial library alert
The 'precautionary' framing reflects the college's choice to protect the broader campus while the library was being swept rather than declare an active threat
By this point Pennsylvania State Police, Grove City Borough Police, the Mercer County Critical Incident Response Team and Campus Safety were on scene
ALL CLEAREmail+2h 10m
Verified verbatimCBS Pittsburgh quoting verbatim Grove City College Campus Safety alert sent at 6:54 PM EDT116 chars
Campus Safety has lifted the precautionary lockdown for the Grove City College campus. Normal operations can resume.
Sent at 6:54 PM EDT — approximately 2 hours and 25 minutes after the first alert about the library
The all-clear is unusually terse for a 3-hour multi-agency sweep — Grove City withheld the swatting confirmation until later state-police statements
Grove City College, a 2,400-student private Christian liberal arts college, was an unusual target for the swatting wave that previously focused on R1 publics
Context

Background

Grove City College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, serving roughly 2,400 students. On Sunday, September 28, 2025, at approximately 4:00 PM EDT, Grove City Borough Police received a call claiming an armed man in a blue shirt was inside the Henry Buhl Library. The campus immediately went into lockdown for what would become a 3-hour multi-agency sweep involving Grove City Borough Police, Pennsylvania State Police, the Mercer County Critical Incident Response Team, and Campus Safety. The lockdown was lifted around 7:00 PM EDT after no shooter, victims, or witnesses were found. Pennsylvania State Police later characterized the call as 'computer-generated' — a hallmark of the AI-assisted swatting wave that swept US campuses in fall 2025. The same day, three other Pennsylvania campuses received similar swatting calls: West Chester University, Millersville University, and Shippensburg University. The clustering of calls across small private and PASSHE regional schools on a single Sunday demonstrated the swatting group was deliberately broadening from earlier R1 targets like Villanova. Grove City College is the smallest institution targeted in the September 28 wave and one of the smallest private religious campuses ever caught in the swatting playbook. The case is significant because (a) it shows the wave reaching small private liberal arts colleges, (b) the 3-hour duration reflects how multi-agency sweep protocols designed for real threats become amplified disruption when the call is a hoax, and (c) it directly motivated bipartisan PA legislation to make swatting a felony.
Analysis

Key Findings

Grove City College — a 2,400-student private Christian liberal arts college — was the smallest of the four PA campuses swatted on September 28, 2025
The 3-hour lockdown reflected multi-agency sweep protocols, not the actual time needed to verify there was no threat
Pennsylvania State Police explicitly characterized the call as 'computer-generated', the first official confirmation of AI-voice involvement in the wave
September 28 became one of the highest-density swatting days of fall 2025, hitting Grove City, West Chester, Millersville, and Shippensburg
The incident directly motivated bipartisan PA legislation in October 2025 to elevate swatting to a felony
Outcome
Lockdown lifted at approximately 7:00 PM EDT after a comprehensive sweep found no shooter, no victims, and no witnesses. Pennsylvania State Police characterized the call as 'computer-generated.' No injuries. The Grove City incident was one of at least four PA campus swatting events that Sunday, prompting bipartisan PA legislation to make swatting a felony.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    Grove City College targeted in false swatting call, state police say — CBS Pittsburgh
    cbsnews.com
  2. News
    Computer-generated swatting call at Grove City College, police — WKBN
    wkbn.com
  3. News
    Armed-gunman hoax locks down Grove City College campus for 3 hours — Allied News
    alliednews.com
  4. Official
    PSP Press Release: False Reports / Swatting Call (Mercer County, September 28, 2025)
    pa.gov
  5. News
    Police investigating potentially dangerous situation at Grove City College — WPXI
    wpxi.com
  6. News
    Grove City College campus on lockdown over 'potentially dangerous situation' — Sharon Herald
    sharonherald.com
  7. News
    Following Villanova August Incident, Bipartisan Bills Aim to Make Swatting Felony in Pennsylvania — Delco Today
    delco.today
Tags
swattinggrove-city-collegepennsylvaniaprivate-religioussmall-campusai-generated-calllibrary-targetfall-2025-wavemulti-campus-dayHoax
Added May 2026Updated June 2026Via ingestion