Swatting Group Kitty Mafia Signals Another Round of Bomb Threats Against Schools and Health Infrastructure
Source: Kitty Mafia Telegram
Executive Summary
A swatting group operating under the name Kitty Mafia is again using its standard tradecraft of posting links to fresh incidents to signal involvement or endorsement, this time around a new cluster of reported bomb threats affecting multiple schools and at least one health care facility. The linked incidents span Illinois, Colorado, Nebraska, and Virginia, suggesting continued intent to generate multi jurisdiction disruption with low effort, high visibility hoax threats.
Analysis
Kitty Mafia appears to be continuing a pattern of threat activity and publicity seeking behavior by directing followers to news coverage of bomb threat responses, consistent with swatting actor norms where “claims” are often made through link posting rather than detailed communiques. The current set of linked reporting centers on at least two Chicago area high schools receiving near identical bomb threat messages assessed as swatting, a larger earlier wave of automated bomb threats across Colorado schools, a reported threat related lockdown response at Aurora High School in Nebraska, and unexplained police activity at a stand alone emergency room in Virginia that the group is treating as related.
Calls for violence in this material are indirect but present in the form of implied or encouraged threat repetition, since the group’s message is effectively an invitation to amplify and continue disruption by circulating targets and incidents. The operational effect is coercive even without a credible device, because it compels evacuations, lockdowns, building searches, and deployment of specialized assets.
Kitty Mafia messaging encouraged followers to review newly posted articles, a typical signaling method used by swatters to imply responsibility or support by curating links to the incidents rather than issuing an explicit statement. Usernames and channels referenced include KittyMafiaConfirmed and t.me/KittyMaf1a.
Oak Park and River Forest High School reported an anonymous bomb threat that prompted a “Hold,” a law enforcement response, and a bomb squad search that found nothing, with officials indicating it appeared consistent with a swatting event and that other area districts received the same message.
Deerfield High School received a bomb threat voicemail with the same verbiage seen in other districts, and police assessed it as a swatting call after searches and heightened presence.
A prior Colorado wave involved automated bomb threats reported across numerous schools statewide, with authorities describing the calls as likely a hoax and no credible threats identified.
Taken together, the incidents and the group’s apparent link posting activity suggest Kitty Mafia is sustaining a campaign model that favors repeated, distributed, hard to attribute threats that force public safety responses. The cluster also shows continued target flexibility, with school disruptions remaining primary while health care related locations are increasingly folded into the same intimidation and disruption narrative.
