OU Campus Police Reflect One Week After Swatting Call

The OU Campus Police was one of several agencies that responded to last week’s threat.

The chief says, as scary as the hoax was, things could have been a lot worse.

“There were some sounds of gunshots. The caller made statements they were shot, and another person was shot,” said OUPD Chief Nate Tarver.

OU Police Chief Nate Tarver says the first 911 call made just before 9:25 Friday night was too real not to respond the way they did, saying there was an active shooter on campus.

“Based on the information, yes. We did feel like we could not delay that. With the potential of that being a valid call or situation,” said Tarver. “Interestingly enough, they didn’t give specifics enough once we listened to it after the fact to say it was our library.” 

Tarver says that night there were three officers on duty. They consider that they are short-staffed and want four officers and a supervisor working.

He adds that since he started working in the department, they have yet to have training on dealing with this as a team.

“All of our officers have training in active shooter response. We are making plans as a collective training to do active shooter training,” said Tarver.

Hundreds of officers deployed that night. Tarver says they looked through the Bizzell Memorial Library.

“The library, as it turns out, was empty. Other than security personnel were there,” said Tarver. “We did get an influx of calls that we are here in this location, and I have the doors locked and barricaded.”

Tarver says he believes this campus is safe.

Counseling resources are available for students dealing with trauma after last week’s hoax.

The FBI says the threat came from somewhere outside the United States.