Man Arrested In 911 Hoax

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) _ A 19-year-old man was arrested for allegedly making a bogus 911 call reporting a shooting on a college campus, authorities said Monday. <br/><br/>Michael Larkin was arrested Sunday

Monday, October 8th 2007, 2:31 pm

By: News On 6

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) _ A 19-year-old man was arrested for allegedly making a bogus 911 call reporting a shooting on a college campus, authorities said Monday.

Michael Larkin was arrested Sunday afternoon, hours after the 6 a.m. call reporting gunfire at the College of New Jersey. The call prompted authorities to go door-to-door at a freshman dormitory and warn students to stay inside.

The campus also sent e-mail alerts to students.

Larkin was held in lieu of $25,000 bail on a charge of making a false public alarm, said Casey DeBlasio, a spokeswoman for the Mercer County prosecutor.

Security checkpoints were set up around campus, but by late morning, a message posted on the university's Web site said investigators ``believe the original report may have been inaccurate.''

DeBlasio and college spokesman Matt Golden wouldn't detail how Larkin was caught. Larkin has never been a student at the public college just outside Trenton, which enrolls about 6,000

DeBlasio didn't immediately know whether Larkin had a lawyer. Attempts to reach Larkin in jail Monday were unsuccessful.

The college, Golden said, is still in the process of purchasing a system to alert students via cell phones.

``Fairly early in the day we were pretty confident it was a hoax, but we were going to proceed very cautiously,'' Golden said.

Colleges across the country have been putting alert systems in place to warn students about emergencies since a gunman went on a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech in April.