Campus Alert Archive
Northwestern

'Person With Gun on Evanston Campus': Northwestern's Two-Hour Lockdown Triggered by a Swatting Call to a Vacant Apartment

ILswattingemergency notificationmedium 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.

A swatting call placed at 2:17 PM CDT on March 14, 2018 prompted Northwestern University to lock down its Evanston campus for nearly two hours after a male caller reported he had shot his girlfriend inside Engelhart Hall, a graduate residence at 1915 Maple Avenue. Police soon discovered the apartment unit named in the call had been vacant since November 2017, and traced the call to an area near Rockford, Illinois. Three NU Alerts went out warning students to seek shelter, then to remain sheltered, and finally announcing the report had been determined to be a hoax.

Alerts
3
Response
23 min
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Northwestern University
Private R1 · IL
~22,000 studentsAlertNU
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

3 messages in sequence · 3 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Verified verbatimChicago Sun-Times quoting NU Alert verbatim139 chars
NU EMERGENCY: Person with gun on Evanston campus. If on campus, seek shelter in safe place and stay until further notice. Others keep away.
Sent at approximately 2:40 PM CDT, roughly 23 minutes after Evanston police received the swatting call at 2:17 PM CDT
Despite the initial caller specifying Engelhart Hall, the first NU Alert did not name the building — likely because Northwestern was still confirming the location and did not want to direct students toward or away from a specific building based on an unverified report
The alert opens with 'NU EMERGENCY' rather than 'NU Alert,' a stronger framing reserved for active threat situations
UPDATESMS
Verified verbatimChicago Sun-Times quoting NU Alert verbatim105 chars
Police continue to investigate a reported incident at Engelhart Hall. Remain sheltered or avoid the area.
This update is the first official Northwestern message that names Engelhart Hall, the graduate residence hall at 1915 Maple Avenue that was the subject of the swatting call
The shelter-in-place directive remained in effect; the message does not yet indicate the report is suspect
ALL CLEARSMS+1h 50m
Verified verbatimChicago Sun-Times quoting NU Alert verbatim223 chars
Police have determined that the report of a man with a gun in Engelhart Hall was a hoax. It was made in a call to the Evanston Police Department. No danger to the community exists. Police are investigating the false report.
Sent at approximately 4:30 PM CDT, ending a roughly two-hour campus lockdown (Northwestern tweeted the all-clear at 4:33 PM CDT)
Northwestern explicitly used the word 'hoax' in the all-clear — a notable specificity choice that contrasts with peer institutions that often use vaguer phrasing like 'unfounded' or 'no longer a threat'
The message attributes the false report to a call to Evanston PD specifically, framing the incident as a swatting rather than a misidentification
Context

Background

Northwestern University is a private R1 research university in Evanston, Illinois with approximately 22,000 students across its undergraduate and graduate programs. Engelhart Hall, located at 1915 Maple Avenue about three blocks west of the main Evanston campus, is a graduate residence hall. At 2:17 PM CDT on March 14, 2018, Evanston police received a call from a male who said he had just shot his girlfriend inside an Engelhart Hall apartment. Police converged on the building with a major tactical response, and Northwestern issued the first NU Alert at 2:40 PM CDT directing students to shelter in place. The lockdown affected the entire Evanston campus, sending students into 'surreal' lockdown drills under desks and behind locked doors. As officers cleared Engelhart Hall, they discovered the targeted apartment unit had been vacant since November 2017 and that the call had originated from an area southeast of Rockford. At approximately 4:15 PM CDT, Northwestern issued an all-clear explicitly characterizing the incident as a hoax. The Northwestern lockdown was one of an escalating series of college swatting incidents that would intensify dramatically by 2025. Northwestern used the response as a test case for its emergency protocols, and a video on Run-Hide-Fight protocol was released eight months later in part as a response to the gaps the March 14 incident exposed.
Analysis

Key Findings

Northwestern's NU Alert sequence (3 messages over approximately 95 minutes) was unusually direct in its language — using 'NU EMERGENCY' for the initial alert and explicitly calling the incident a 'hoax' in the all-clear
The targeted apartment in Engelhart Hall had been vacant since November 2017, a fact discovered only after Evanston police entered the building
The swatting call was traced to an area near Rockford, Illinois, well outside the Chicago metro area
The incident prompted Northwestern to release an updated Run-Hide-Fight video eight months later as part of its response to gaps in student awareness exposed by the March 14 lockdown
Time from initial 911 call (2:17 PM CDT) to first NU Alert (approximately 2:40 PM CDT) was roughly 23 minutes — long for an active-shooter report
Outcome
No injuries. Lockdown lifted at approximately 4:30 PM CDT after Evanston police searched Engelhart Hall and confirmed no shooting had occurred. The targeted apartment had been vacant since November 2017. The call was traced to an area southeast of Rockford. The FBI and Evanston police investigated the false report; EPD ultimately concluded the swatting was linked to the victim's status as a high-end computer gamer, with opponents targeting his (then) girlfriend's address. No perpetrator was publicly identified.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    Lockdown lifted after reported shooting inside Northwestern's Englehart Hall deemed a hoax 'swatting' incident (Chicago Sun-Times)
    chicago.suntimes.com
  2. News
    Lockdown Lifted After Reports Of Northwestern Gunman Turn Out To Be Hoax (CBS Chicago)
    cbsnews.com
  3. News
    Report of gunman at Northwestern University was a hoax, police say (WGN-TV)
    wgntv.com
  4. Student Paper
    Northwestern University students recount 'surreal' gun incident scare (The Daily Northwestern)
    dailynorthwestern.com
  5. Student Paper
    Eight months after gun hoax, University releases video on emergency protocol (The Daily Northwestern)
    dailynorthwestern.com
  6. News
    Northwestern gives the all clear, saying gunman report was a hoax (Daily Herald)
    dailyherald.com
Tags
swattinghoaxprivate-r1illinoisnorthwesternevanstonengelhart-hallverbatim-confirmedgraduate-residencevacant-apartmentrockford-callnu-alertHoax
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion