Campus Alert Archive
Loma Linda

A 'Run, Hide, Fight' Text Locked Down a Seventh-day Adventist Children's Hospital After a Swatting Caller Claimed He Had an AR-15 and a Bomb

CAswattingemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed HoaxDetermined to be a hoax. The institutional response is documented because it reveals how the alert system performed under a perceived real threat.

On the afternoon of March 12, 2025, a swatting call to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department reported an armed individual at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital. The caller claimed he had an AR-15 and a bomb and was experiencing a mental-health crisis. The hospital and the affiliated Loma Linda University Health Sciences campus issued a Code Silver lockdown and sent a 'Run, Hide, Fight' alert to students and employees. Roughly 200 law enforcement units responded; the scene was cleared at approximately 8:15 p.m. PDT.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Loma Linda University Health
Private R2 · CA
~4,500 studentsLLUH Alerts
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Verified verbatimCampus Safety Magazine (preserved verbatim alert text)254 chars
Code Silver – Active Threat LLUH has declared a Code Silver – Active Threat: Report of Armed Assailant at PEDS ED This is not a drill: Initiate immediate protective actions. If confronted with a threat, RUN, HIDE, FIGHT. Additional information to follow.
Campus Safety Magazine preserved the full verbatim alert text from the LLUH Code Silver notification on March 12, 2025
The alert was simultaneously a campus alert (sent to students and employees) and a Code Silver hospital lockdown notification — internal terminology for a hostile/armed-assailant lockdown defined in the [LLUH Code Silver protocol](https://llu.edu/sites/llu.edu/files/2021-03/lluh-11-8-code-silver-hostage.pdf)
PEDS ED refers to the pediatric emergency department at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital, where the swatting caller falsely claimed to be located
ALL CLEARSMS
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department social media update at 8:10 p.m. PDT confirming the hospital had been cleared202 chars
Loma Linda University Health Alert: The active threat investigation is concluded. Loma Linda Hospital has been cleared. There is no ongoing threat. Code Silver has been lifted. Normal operations resume.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department posted at 8:10 p.m. PDT that the hospital had been cleared, and the campus all-clear followed minutes later
Approximately 200 law enforcement units responded to the swatting call — a scale comparable to a confirmed active-shooter event because the caller specifically claimed an AR-15 and a bomb
The Sheriff's Department later confirmed it was a swatting call and opened a federal investigation
Context

Background

Loma Linda University Health is a Seventh-day Adventist health-sciences institution in Loma Linda, California, that operates the Loma Linda University Medical Center, a Level I trauma center, and Loma Linda University Children's Hospital alongside its medical, dental, nursing, and allied health schools. On March 12, 2025, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department received a swatting call reporting an armed person at the children's hospital. The caller claimed he had an AR-15 and a bomb and that 'voices' were telling him to shoot up the hospital. The hospital activated a Code Silver lockdown, the LLUH Alerts emergency notification system sent a 'Run, Hide, Fight' message to students and employees, and approximately 200 law enforcement units responded. Patients were evacuated from some hospital areas. After hours of searching, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department announced at 8:10 p.m. PDT that the hospital had been cleared and no suspect or weapon had been located. The Sheriff's Department later opened an investigation into the swatting call as part of a broader wave of Southern California swatting incidents in early 2025. The case is significant for the campus alert archive because it documents the response of a private health-sciences institution where the campus alert population includes both clinical employees and students at the affiliated graduate health-sciences schools, and because the Loma Linda Children's Hospital is one of the largest pediatric hospitals on the West Coast — a high-stakes target for hospital swatting.
Analysis

Key Findings

The swatting caller specifically named an AR-15 and a bomb — the kind of detail that drives a maximum-scale law-enforcement response and produced approximately 200 responding units
The campus alert was sent in parallel with a Code Silver hospital lockdown, illustrating the dual-track emergency response of a teaching hospital with affiliated graduate schools
The 'This is not a drill: Initiate immediate protective actions' opening is one of the few examples of verbatim health-sciences campus-alert text preserved in journalism
The incident was part of a documented wave of Southern California hospital and school swatting calls in early 2025 investigated for connection by law enforcement
Patient evacuations from some hospital areas reflect the unique operational tension of locking down a children's hospital where patients cannot simply 'shelter in place'
Outcome
No suspect was located. No shots were fired and no injuries occurred. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department later identified the call as a swatting incident — a part of a wave of similar swatting calls in Southern California in early 2025 — and opened an investigation.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    "Swatting call" forces lockdown at Loma Linda hospital - CBS Los Angeles
    cbsnews.com
  2. News
    Swatting call draws heavy police presence at Loma Linda hospital, report of armed suspect unfounded - ABC7 Los Angeles
    abc7.com
  3. News
    Detectives launch investigation into swatting call that forced Loma Linda hospital to evacuate - CBS Los Angeles
    cbsnews.com
  4. Source
    Swatting Call Prompts Large Police Response at Southern California Hospital - Campus Safety Magazine
    campussafetymagazine.com
  5. Social
    San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department - Loma Linda Hospital Incident Update - Facebook
    facebook.com
  6. Official
    Loma Linda University Health Code Silver Protocol
    llu.edu
  7. News
    A rise in swatting cases has led to multiple lockdowns throughout SoCal - ABC7 Los Angeles
    abc7.com
Tags
swattingmedical-schoolhealth-scienceshospital-lockdowncode-silvercalifornialoma-lindachildrens-hospitalseventh-day-adventistrun-hide-fightprivate-r2Hoax
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion