MCSD student arrested for false active shooter report that put Columbus High on lockdown
A Muscogee County School District student has been arrested and charged in the incident that put Columbus High School on lockdown this week.
Jamar Brown, 18, of Carver High School was arrested Tuesday at his home without resistance and charged with a false report of a crime, MCSD Police Chief Greg Arp told the Ledger-Enquirer on Friday.
Around 10 a.m. Monday, a call was made on a cellphone to the Columbus 911 Center reporting an alleged active shooter at Columbus High School, Arp said.
A total of 18 officers from the city and school district police departments responded, Arp said. Officers searched the campus and determined the call was a hoax. The lockdown lasted about an hour.
Police traced the call to the cellphone owned by Brown’s mother, and Brown admitted to being the caller, Arp said.
“He and his parent were very cooperative,” Arp said. “It’s unfortunate that what he thought was a prank ultimately wound up getting him into some trouble.”
The crime is a misdemeanor in Georgia, which means Brown could be imprisoned for as long as a year and fined as much as $1,000 if convicted. He was released from the Muscogee County Jail on a bond of $358.75.
Arp emphasized that this arrest comes with a message for those thinking of committing such a prank.
“Don’t do it,” he said, “because even though they think nobody will be able to trace it back and identify who made the phone call, this is a prime example, even though he didn’t leave his name or anything like that.”
Arp explained the prank’s impact.
“You have a lot of man hours involved,” he said. “You have loss of instruction time involved. The teachers can’t teach during the lockdown, so the students are just idle. … You’ve got police all over campus, searching around, so it takes an emotional toll on students and staff.”
As well as the parents who were alerted and raced to the school.
“Because of the nature of what occurred,” Arp said, “… we wound up leaving four officers (in addition to the one assigned to the school) just for peace of mind for the staff and students and parents and also to help with traffic in the event that we had an influx of parents who wanted to come in and check out their children.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 4:36 PM.
