YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: “Swatting” turned to hospitals last night with bogus calls to Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Morristown Hospital and Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune.
The calls were that four gunmen were in various sections of each hospital, law enforcement sources told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
These came after Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick went on divert and lockdown on Monday — closing its emergency room and suspending admissions to its trauma unit by helicopter.
Last night, certain access points were locked down as the Englewood Police Emergency Services Unit swept EHMC after the automated voice message from a blocked number came in.
“Although the likelihood that it’s a swatting is very strong, we are exercising all due diligence with hospital security,” Detective Capt. Timothy Torell told CLIFFVIEW PILOT during the sweep.
“It’s one thing to target a shopping mall or a restaurant,” he added, “but hospitals are something else entirely.”
At the same time, Torell said, EHMC has cameras in virtually every corner and authorities were reviewing surveillance video.
