Breaking News: Chattanooga State Issues School Lockdown

none of that what was the nature of the threat the nature of the threat was a call about um essentially it it was a little confusing but um it came out as a potential kidnapping maybe some information about guns being available or out there and uh and uh that's really how it came in so um is there any threat to a campus right now well we we are still clearing the campus so I wouldn't say that there we have not cleared the scene yet so but we are working on it we have come across no threat at this point okay hold on just a second let me get the gentleman on the phone do you what's your question sir um I was going to ask the same question what was what was the nature of the credible threat okay we really can't confirm just yet we're still trying to obtain that information but you know whether the call came in um as credible or not we're still working to confirm whether or not it's credible but at this time we take every single phone call uh important to us and we treat it as real have officers or deputies been to the origin of the call to investigate so this is Jer chief chief Summers for Chen Police Department Harry Summers right so um I I that's a that's a question I think that we should I that probably we can't answer right this minute um no okay um what's the most important thing for the public to know right now well from a police perspective I think that um from everybody else off outside the campus there's no reason to believe that there's any um issues for them there's no no danger for them um and we have actually found thus far nothing dangerous yet on campus but we're still looking so we want to be uh we want to be cautious and care ful and and um and prudent with what we say but uh um I don't think that we we see a greater danger at this time outside of you know what we're even looking at right now so yeah so to just reiterate what Chief sumers says is they have many many uh police services that are on foot that are securing the scene actually going outside of the Chen state area as well which is River Park area and nothing has been reported yet that it's considered a credible threat so but as far as the Chena state it continues to be on lockdown and will remain on lockdown until they have confirmed that everything has been cleared by every single building of every single room so we will continue uh as I said amola highway is is free to um move about uh the only thing is is any students if they're trying to get into the college or try to leave the college they're not able to do that at this time Chief sers are you uh able to kind of go into depth as to what divisions of CPD are in there working right now um I I would just say we had a we had a good large number of people already on campus who responded immediately so um uh and and that wasn't just CPD but there were a number of other um law enforcement groups that were there including our federal Partners so anything else yeah I I was going I think after this was this trending potentially toward a situation like BR last year with HS but you know furthermore of all the school rest that we've seen you know the last week or two um just kind of how much would is that raise the urgency responding to this particular well I can speak on behalf of the Emergency Operations Center we have so many uh agencies that are here in support for cha State we also have um the FBI is here they are helping with this investigation um to help to see whether or not and confirm if this is a real credible threat or if it is a hoax so it's it's still too early to confirm that but as soon as we can confirm that we don't have a credible threat to Chattanooga State we are we are continuing to treat this as real also notic there were some CA buses staging across the street as well so is that going to be for students and where are they going to be taken to to be reunited right so we have been informed that ched state does does have cter buses across the street from andola Highway do you do you do you want to speak on that as far as for students so I think generally Chattanooga State has in its care hundreds of faculty and staff thousands of students including three high schools and one child care center grateful to the partners in law enforcement who are joining us to help keep our campus safe we are waiting for the all clear and we don't have that in this moment so buses are staged should they be needed and when our law enforcement say all clear which we hope we hear very soon then that is when we will lift the lockdown until then any faculty and staff and students on our campus if you are experiencing a medical crisis in this moment please call 911 anything else and how will parents learn like once we'll be we'll go after tiger alert when correct we will use our tiger alert for that update absolutely everybody good and if we have any any updates we will come right back out here and let you know okay okay great thank you very much appreciate it thanks bye at Chattanooga State uh Community College where this situation has been going now for nearly uh two hours uh let me review because uh technically we uh we were able to um to get about half of that uh briefing the FBI is now on the scene uh they are on the campus of Chattanooga State right now uh they are there chattanoga State uh remains on lockdown uh what what they said earlier and we did not pick this up in the briefing uh but what what uh was communicated uh by Emergency Operations is a call came in uh this uh call came in and uh the call again uh POS talking about a possible kidnapping and and possibly a gun involved and that is all they said now there's I'm I'm not going to speculate but uh could be more than than that obviously obviously no more than that but that is what was said publicly in the Press briefing there are CA buses standing by uh across the uh across the street uh they just said in the Press briefing uh for students if they need it I did find it interesting uh that uh the lady speaking for Chattanooga State uh and and I this is my ignorance I don't know if that was maybe the president of Chattanooga State I'm we're we're not sure on that but she she was speaking uh for Chattanooga State there are three high schools so obviously a a dual enrollment uh type of thing there she said three high schools and a Child Care Center on campus at Chattanooga State uh not to mention the thousands of students uh that that attend Chattanooga State uh Community College and uh she said that is what they are concerned about the most but uh again they they did talk about uh calls that came into Chattanooga State one talking about a gun another kidnapping and um all right the and and I'm being told by a law enforcement Source right now that um it would be a felony uh it would be a felony uh based on their capture anyone who did this so uh again that is that is what was talked about publicly as far as what what the reasoning is that Chattanooga state has been on lockdown where they sent an alert out just for 10:00 this morning telling their students their faculty their staff to go into it Go indoors and lock the lock the doors go go indoors and lock the doors we're getting also we have seen video now look in in the folks in the age of social media we understand there's a lot of rumors around there's a lot but there's also video that that uh that we've seen uh from people we know down there where uh it shows uh law enforcement sweeping the campus and that was the the last report that that Chattanooga State put out at about 10 after 11 was that the lockdown continues that the uh the campus is being swept by Chattanooga police there is a and if you're watching us on mix tv.tv We Are uh you're seeing the you are seeing the uh uh the law enforcement presence is incredible uh down there and and obviously whatever uh this is warranted uh this type of response and uh Austin Chadwick's in here with me Austin okay so the chattano police um uh they said during that press conference I had to go back and and listen to it just a second cuz he was very short but he said that they have seen no uh suspect and that they have um they've not they've not captured a suspect and they've seen no gunfire at this point so so no one's reporting that there was gunfire uh no one's reporting there're suspect that's the only thing he said now of course um we we've heard so many other things until we can confirm it we're not going to say that but that is what he said during the press conference and so uh uh that is is uh exactly right so we are again we're live on mix 1041 we're on mix tv.tv the FBI is on campus along with Chattanooga police Hamilton County Sheriff's Office and one would think others uh other law enforcement agencies and they are again uh sweeping the campus is what we know uh as they said in the press conference earlier there were couple of phone calls made uh into Chattanooga State which at least partially prompted all of this we we don't have the full information uh we do not know if uh in fact uh more happened or or more didn't happen as far as the the reason uh for all of this however I will say that uh in the very beginning law enforcement uh told local three our news part partners that in fact um there was a credible threat that there was a credible then they described it as a credible uh threat Chattanooga police as Austin just said in uh uh in their press briefing a few minutes ago saying that uh there has been no suspect uh seen nor located on the campus that they have no suspect is basically what they're saying in their press briefing so the situation continues on the Chattanooga State campus at this hour here we are about uh 15 minutes before noon and uh the situation is continuing lockdown students faculty staff all lock down the uh representative for chattanoga State said in the Press briefing they have three high schools represented on the campus meaning that they have um something a dual enrollment uh there they have a child care Center on campus there are Carta buses waiting uh if if they're needed for to transport students potentially the FBI is involved they are they are now there at Chattanooga State so uh it is a uh still as uh as law enforcement in their briefing that was the uh Emergency Management agency uh briefing uh for Hamilton County saying that this this indeed is an active situation in the fact that they it's a continuing situation they are still on lockdown so we're going to step away here when we uh have any updates we're going to bring it to you we we know there are also a lot of Cleveland and Bradley County people people from this listening area involved at Chattanooga State there's obviously a lot of concern and there's there's a lot of um there's a lot of communication we understand between uh people at uh at uh chattan at Chattanooga State and in fact um they are communicating obviously uh with uh with people uh I would I would point you uh to some uh some state law that uh began on July 1st and one of one of the uh this this state law was sponsored by Senator Adam low of of was of course here in Cleveland an act to amend the Tennessee code to make it a criminal offense as an act that establish unlawful for a person to intentionally initiate or circulate a report of a past present or impending active shooter and hostage situation knowing the report is false this becomes a a crime this uh took place that law took place uh came into effect July the 1st in Tennessee and we said it earlier over the last uh few weeks there have been there have been uh channel 3 says eight threats uh now these were to middle and high schools uh in our listening area and mostly in Hamilton County one at MCM Central High School uh so there have been a lot of threats but at this point we simply do not know uh exactly what is happening other than what they passed along in the briefing chattanoga State under lockdown they are still on lockdown we are going to go back to regular programming right now it is uh 144 we will come back and reset what is happening at noon during our uh local and state news break at noon today so here in about uh 15 minutes or so we will do that you're listening to mix1041 you're watching us on mix tv.tv we're going to come right back with more go back to regular programming we'll be back with an update at noon blow off your boat trip cancel this is Nancy Patterson Pio for cha State Steve Daris with Hamilton County Schools so this morning oh and my name is Amy Maxwell with hamilt County Emergency Management speaking on behalf of the Emergency Operations Center at uh 9:45 a.m. we received a credible threat at the Chattanooga State's Main Campus located on amicola Highway way at 9:52 a.m. Chattanooga State sent out a release I should say a text message that put CH State on lockdown for security and safety of the students and at 1012 Helms County Office of Emergency Management sent out their emergency notification as well that have subscribed to our emergency notification system that we were on lockdown and to avoid the area of chuga State at this time so what do we have right now so when we received the credible threat we had Chattanooga State campus police Chattanooga police department Hamilton County Sheriff's Office and Hamilton County Park Rangers responded to the scene and top priority was securing the safety of Campus what is that entitled they go through every single building at Chan state and confirm that the scene is safe so during a lockdown with students in each of these buildings because we're all in session at school all these First Responders they go in and they secure each build each uh building and each door every room that's inside this campus now once they clear that room the students remain on lockdown in the building in the room so they are still there currently until the scene has been completely safe uh we do have Chattanooga fire department that's on the scene as well we have had reports of a possible gas leak right now our top priority is to make sure that the scene is safe before we start looking to see if we have a gas leak but chattanoga fire is there staging and once command has informed that the scene is safe they will go in and they will confirm whether or not that we have a gas leak with using their radiological monitoring systems uh Hamilton County EMS responded to the scene as well they have been staging at campus ready to assist uh any potential injuries uh might Garen Pio for EMS said that they had to that they were treating for anxiety under this kind of situation I can understand why um also we had uh have no reports of any additional injuries we have had many calls from parents concerns about uh County Schools are they at a threat do we need to go on lockdown um Steve Daris with Chattanooga I mean with the um County school system and said that they had potentially put Hardy school Under brief lockdown but they are not on lockdown anymore only because they were near the area as of right now Steve dreis has reported that there are no schools no County schools are on lockdown at this time micola highways you can see remains to be open uh both directions and that's where we are right now so that just gives you a brief update this is a continuing and process situation so right now our top priority is to assist chattano State and get the scene safe and back to a sense of normaly when we get more additional information to confirm whether this is uh a real credible threat or not we will let you know as soon as possible and at this time I will take do we have any questions from anybody have there been any reps of sh fire hold on just a second I'll get you next go ahead have there been any credible reports of sh and anyone Summers so no there hasn't been so we have not found um we have been there since almost the the the discovery of of the of the incident or the call that came in um we had people many Law Enforcement Officers already on campus there at the time when it came in we so we had an immediate reaction we have seen um or heard no gunfire we' have encountered no uh suspect physically or victims either way so yeah um we heard that there are possible reports of any hostages is that any does that have any credibility to it at this point in time we have not found any victims at at any sort so we are still like was said we are still searching some buildings we're still clearing buildings but up to now we have come across none of that so what was the nature of the threat well the nature of the threat was a call about um essentially it it was a little confusing but um it came out as a potential kidnapping maybe some information about guns being available or out there and uh and uh that's really how it came in so um is there any threat to the campus right now well we we are still clearing the campus so I wouldn't say that there we have not cleared the scene yet so but we are working on it we have come across no threat at this point okay hold on just a second let me get the gentleman on the phone do you what's your question sir um I was going to ask the same question what was what was the nature of the credible threat okay we really can't confirm just yet we're still trying to obtain that information but you know whether the call came in um as credible or not we're still working to confirm whether or not it's credible but at this time we take every single phone call uh important to us and we treat it as real have officers or deputies been to the origin of the call to investigate so this is J chief chief Summers attending the police department Harry Summers right so um I I that's a that's a question I think that we should I that probably can't answer right this minute um no okay um what's the most important thing for the public to know right now well from a police perspective I think that um from everybody else off outside the campus there's no reason to believe that there's any um issues for them there's no no danger for them um and we have actually found thus far nothing dangerous yet on campus but we're still looking so we want to be uh we want to be cautious and careful and and um and prudent with what we say but uh uh um I don't think that we we see a greater danger at this time outside of you know what we're even looking at right now so yeah so to just reiterate what Chief summer says is they have many many uh police services that are on foot that are securing the scene actually going outside of the Chen state area as well which is River Park area and nothing has been reported yet that it's considered a credible threat so but as far as the Chen state it continues to be on lockdown and will remain on lockdown until they have confirmed that everything has been cleared by every single building of every single room so we will continue uh as I said an niola highway is is free to uh move about uh the only thing is is any students if they're trying to get into the college or try to leave the college they're not able to do that at this time Chief are you uh able to kind of go into dep as to what divisions CPD are in there working right now um I I would just say we had a we had a good large number of people already on campus who responded immediately so um uh in and that wasn't just CPD but there were a number of other um law enforcement groups that were there including our federal Partners so anything else yeah Ian I was going to I think I answer this was this trending for a situation last year with but you know furthermore of all the school threat arrest that we've seen in you know the last week or two um just kind of how much would do that raise the urgency responding to this particular I can speak on behalf of the emergency Operation Center we have so many uh agencies that are here in support for chattano State we also have um the FBI is here they are helping with this investigation uh to help to see whether or not and confirm if this is a real credible threat or if it is a hoax so it's it's still too early to confirm that but as soon as we can confirm that we don't have a credible threat to Chattanooga State we are we are continuing to treat this as real also notic there were some car bus stationing across the street as well so is that going to be for students and where are they going to be taken to to be reunited right so we have been informed that chading state does have cter buses across the street from amola Highway do you do you do you want to speak on that as far as for students so I think generally Chattanooga State has in its care hundreds of faculty and staff thousands of students including three high schools and one child care center grateful to the partners and law enforcement who are joining us to help keep our campus safe we are waiting waiting for the all clear and we don't have that in this moment so buses are staged should they be needed and when our law enforcement say all clear which we hope we hear very soon then that is when we will lift the lockdown until then any faculty and staff and students on our campus if you are experiencing a medical crisis in this moment please call 911 anything else and how will parents learn like once out we'll be we'll go after tiger when that Lo's lifted correct we will use our tiger alert for that update absolutely everybody good and if we have any any updates we will come right back out here and let you know okay okay great thank uh a very uh good afternoon everyone it's uh coming up uh noon here you're listening to mix1 41 you're watching us on mix tv.tv we have been following the uh the situation at uh Chattanooga State where the lockdown continues down there now we're joined by Mike Garen he is the public information officer for Hamilton County EMS Mike good afternoon buddy good afternoon Steve you were in of course in Bradley County for a long time and uh I I I want to start from the top we we we had your uh press briefing a few minutes ago on our air here and I I want to just get the very latest we know that uh according to the Press briefing a phone threat came into Chattanooga State at 9:45 this morning and uh of course the lockdown uh is still in progress what's the very latest down there Mike uh yes we did receive uh some calls about 945 it was very confusing uh we first received a report of a gas leak at chattano state so we had officers and a CH fire department uh already on scene and then received uh some uh phone calls of a possible hostage situation uh also it was H brought up that there was some weapons involved uh at this time uh chattanoga police Hamilton County Sheriff's Department got thp FBI they're all on the scene and they've been clearing the the campus there's absolutely been no uh evidence of any kind of uh hostage situation there's been nothing uh corroborated about anybody being armed um you know we're we're really hoping that this is a hoax and that's what it's appearing to be at this time there've been a lot of erroneous uh reports of gunfire and things of that nature out in the community there's been absolutely nothing found and no injuries no gunfire nothing at this time we're joined by Mike Garen live uh here on mix1041 as well as mix tv.tv uh you know Mike it's interesting uh the last couple of weeks maybe the last few weeks uh the threats that have been uh coming in to uh to Public Schools uh secondary schools middle and high schools mostly in havalon County we did have the one threat uh in mcmin County I is there a thought that that this may be part of this rash of threats we're we're seeing you know it could be I know law enforcement is looking at that aspect uh of course you know first and foremost they have to they have to treat this as as a real situation so they're still as we're speaking uh finishing up clearing the campus to make sure that it is safe uh but yeah they they're definitely going to look and see if any of that is tied in together for sure you know uh we're joined by Mike Garen he is now Hamilton County uh p uh EMS public information officer of course was in Bradley County for a long long time Mike um now what what what I think about especially there in the Press briefing and then what we heard uh initially was that it was a credible threat uh was that a was that maybe a an initial uh reaction Mike yeah I think they they they take it as you until they can prove otherwise they take it as a real threat uh the information that came out at the beginning uh you know there's just no way to cooperate it other than go in and look for it and um gosh there was a vast amount of law enforcement officers on the scene they quickly assembled teams and and started methodically clearing all the the campus buildings and uh you know as as times passed on you know they they've been unable to cooperate any of the initial reports well Mike I I really appreciate you joining us here Mike Garen is the public information officer for the hamon County EMS anything that anything else that you would like uh the public to know at this point I think the main thing is just uh don't pay attention to their ownest reports uh if you don't hear it from the officials uh don't believe it there's a lot of a lot of reports out there of things is just not happening just get your news from the from the news agencies uh and the the officials as they report it Mike Garen uh Mike we appreciate your time uh keep us updated if you can okay thank you Steve I appreciate you and I will thank you sir Mike Garen is the uh course been a long time uh at the brownley County uh EMS here in Cleveland and now he is the public information officer for EMS in hamilin County but the headline uh in our interview just now uh is that Mike Garen says that it appears to be a hoax it appears to be a hoax there has been no evidence found of any uh anything uh that was uh that was called in uh Mike uh saying in fact um uh the the calls the call came in at 9:45 uh there was talk uh one uh call about a gas leak one about weapons is what he said uh there there have been all kinds of rumors and you know we've talked about this this morning in this age of social media so many uh false uh false rumors get out more so really than ever uh but uh and that this is also I I would say is also good news is uh is that in fact uh uh at this point nothing has been found uh cha State sent another update uh and matter of fact uh one minute ago thank you very much one minute ago and they say quote thank you for your patience uh we're still in lockdown or still in lockdown thank you for your patience updates will continue uh to be shared and uh we just got that in one minute ago from chattanoga state so uh again uh Mike Garen public information officer for hamlon County EMS again if you're just joining us here on mix 1041 radio we're on mix tv.tv Steve Harline with you and Mike Garen former uh former head of the Bradley County Emergency Medical service he is now in Hamilton County at the Hamilton County EMS as their public information officer saying it appears to be a hoax there is no evidence no hostages no victims now earlier in the Press briefing about a half hour ago the the Chattanooga police chief Harry Summers said in that briefing quote no suspects have been encountered end quote uh the call Initial call calls came in it sounds like there was more than one call but at least one call in the Chattanooga State saying that uh Mike just talked about a call about a gas leak which was not found and then also a call about uh about weapons and gunfire that sort of thing hostages all of those have turned out at this point uh to be unfounded so that is good news uh obviously we have a lot of parents and family and friends listening right now or watching us right now who have connection at Chattanooga State and so I'm sure that uh the interview that we just did with Mike Garen uh should bring some uh hopefully will bring some peace at at this time that uh at this point no evidence of of anything has been found at Chattanooga State is this and I asked him that is this part of the rack of threats that we have seen uh eight times eight eight different schools uh in um in uh in Hamilton County in mcmin County we have had I want to I want to go back to that channel 3 did a great job did a great story just this morning our news Partners at local 3 uh in fact uh pointing out we've had eight School threats at middle high schools at secondary schools in southeast Tennessee since August the 8th today is the 29th so the last 3 weeks udah Middle School MCM Central High School Brown Middle Hixon middle Redbank High School East Hamilton High School Brown middle and Chattanooga Preparatory School have all had phoned in I think one of them actually was an email threat uh and and we're not going to make any type of of finality or any type of statement here to summarize it's not the time uh but if if what Mike Garen just told us the public information officer for Hamilton County EMS Bears true then in fact this could be Cate categorized as as as another threat don't know we really have no uh uh perspective as to why all of these threats at one time but then I'm reminded that uh if you're watching us on mix tv.tv you're seeing a live shot with our partners at local 3 from their sky 3 camera uh of the campus they're still there and they're still on lockdown here at 10: afternoon they are still on lockdown down there but but uh even calling in a a threat to a school uh is um is uh is now uh a criminal offense and so uh there have been arrests made uh in some of these cases and we do know yesterday at Howard at Howard in Chattanooga that a student had a gun we do know that that was reported uh yesterday morning so maybe that was actually Tuesday where a gun was on campus a student had a firearm we do know that but in these other cases they they have been threats and obviously uh Chattanooga State law enforcement they have to take everything very seriously uh the again though you go back to when this all started about 10:00 uh law enforcement said it was a credible threat change the change the narrative a little bit there in the beginning but now again I'm just going to summarize quickly Mike Garen we just had him on our air uh public information officer Hamilton County Emergency Medical Service said it appears to be a hoax there is no evidence there are no hostages and there are no victims Hamilton County uh Hamilton County I should say CH excuse me Chattanooga police chief Harry Summers said in the Press briefing they have not not encountered a suspect but we are going to stay on this uh story until the lockdown is lifted so we're going to go back to regular programming right now you're listening to mix 1041 you are watching us on mix tv.tv I'm Steve Hartline this has been a mix 1041 wcl News special report [Music] [Music]