Richland deputies say there was no shooting at Lower Richland High after a false report
There is no evidence of a shooting occurring at Lower Richland High School Monday, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department reported.
The department said it received a report Monday of a shooting at the high school, but after law enforcement responded, they determined there was no shooting.
The incident comes after similar false reports of shootings have been made at area high schools.
The sheriff’s department reported the incident shortly before 3 p.m. Monday.
A spokesperson for the Richland 1 school district said they will work with the sheriff’s department in its investigation, but deferred to the sheriff’s department for additional information. The State has reached out to the sheriff’s department.
Similar false shooting reports have plagued schools across South Carolina recently. Some law enforcement officials have said they believe a social media trend popularized on the platform TikTok may be responsible for the series of false reports.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott held a news conference Oct. 5 to address a similar false report that put Blythewood High School under lockdown last week.
In that scenario, the sheriff’s department received a call from an unknown individual who said they were at Blythewood High School and that someone had been shot, according to Lott.
About 150 law enforcement officers responded to the call at Blythewood High last Wednesday while students and staff were evacuated.
False shooting reports were made at more than a dozen high schools across the state that same day, including in Newberry, Charleston, Beaufort, Greenville and Myrtle Beach.
Lott previously said the FBI is assisting in investigating the chain of false shooting reports.
On Thursday, Gov. Henry McMaster told reporters that investigators believed the person or persons making the false reports was not a local and may live outside of the United States. On Friday, the governor called on the State Law Enforcement Division to review law enforcement’s responses to the false shooting reports.
The Columbia Division of the FBI reported that similar incidents have recently occurred across the country.
This story was originally published October 10, 2022 at 3:39 PM.
