Fact check: Nearby police activity prompted lockdown at North Carolina high school, not active shooter

BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAY
·2 min read

The claim: A North Carolina high school had an active shooter on March 1

A March 1 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) warned people of a purported threat to students at a school in North Carolina.

“Active shooter at Chambers High School!” reads the post.

It was shared more than 60 times in one day.

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Our rating: False

The school district said there was no active shooter on the campus on March 1, but several students received threatening messages that local law enforcement is investigating. The school did go into lockdown that day for an unrelated police incident.

School went into lockdown because of unrelated police incident nearby

There was no active shooter incident at Julius L. Chambers High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 1, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools spokesperson Eddie Perez.

But the school did have an alarming incident, Perez explained.

“We had threatening messages shared via Airdrop with some students at the school,” Perez told USA TODAY. “Law enforcement is investigating.”

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The messages were shared with the students on the morning of March 1, but the incident did not disrupt the school schedule, Perez said. He did not provide further detail on the content or source of the messages.

The school also went into lockdown around 8:30 a.m. because of unrelated police activity in the area, Perez said.

A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police spokesperson told the Charlotte Observer that police received a tip about an armed person in the area at the time of the lockdown. Police did not find evidence the tip was credible.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department did not immediately return USA TODAY’s request for comment.

Police tape is seen near the scene of a shooting early Monday, June 22, 2020 in Charlotte, North Carolina, that resulted in two deaths and several more people wounded or injured. Police say a shooting in North Carolina's largest city has left two people dead and multiple others wounded, while several others were hit by vehicles at the scene. (AP Photo/Sarah Blake Morgan) ORG XMIT: RPSM102

Several other schools in the district were also put on lockdown as police tried to arrest a suspect who barricaded himself inside a building, WBTV in Charlotte reported. The lockdowns were lifted after the suspect surrendered.

The threatening messages and the lockdown at Chambers High School come less than five months after a gun was found at the school in October, as reported by WBTV. The high school is one of several schools in the district that installed body scanners in recent years in an effort to keep weapons off its campus, the outlet reported.

USA TODAY has previously debunked claims of an active shooter at a Georgia high school and Walmart stores in Illinois and Tennessee.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the claim for comment.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: False claim of shooter at North Carolina high school