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SALT LAKE CITY — Investigators say an incident that prompted a mass police response to the International Center on Friday turned out not to be an incident of swatting, but just a mistake.
Just before 3 p.m. Friday, Salt Lake police reported they had received a call from someone out of state who claimed he was contacted by an employee at the International Center, near 5600 West and 600 North, that there was a possible active shooter.
But when officers arrived at the building, they discovered there was nothing happening.
Although the call originally fit the description of "swatting" — when a person makes a 911 call to report a false crime, usually of an extremely violent nature, with the intent of getting a SWAT team to respond — further investigation determined it was actually just a mistake, police said Monday.
Somewhere in the building, an employee accidentally triggered something called an "active shooter intruder alarm," said Salt Lake police detective Robert Ungricht. That prompted an employee to text a family member outside the building, who in turn called police.
As opposed to a swatting situation, Ungricht said police who responded on Friday were not intentionally called out knowing it was a false alarm.
