ORLANDO, Fla. – A 22-year-old Arizona man was arrested early Monday after he falsely told guests at Walt Disney World’s Contemporary Resort that there was an active shooter inside the hotel to get reactions out of them, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said it was shortly after midnight when Dillion Burch told the woman at the front desk of the hotel, located at 4600 North World Drive, that he was telling guests that something had been happening on the property because he has a YouTube channel, according to an arrest report.
The woman then notified the on-duty manager that Burch had been going up to guests and telling them that the resort was on lockdown because of a shooter, the report said.
Other guests told authorities they had been approached by a man who was intoxicated and was saying there was an active shooter or an emergency, and that they needed to evacuate. He later admitted that it was a joke, the witnesses told authorities, and that he was doing an experiment for his YouTube channel.
When the manager approached Burch and asked him why, he said he was working on a school project in which he had to record people’s reactions when they find out an emergency is happening, deputies said.
According to the report, the manager told Burch he couldn’t do that and that deputies were on their way to talk to him.
Burch told the manager he would leave on his own and asked him not to follow him, the report said. He then walked out of the hotel lobby, saw deputy’s lights and began running into the parking lot, authorities said.
Security later found Burch hiding in a row of bushes on hotel property and called deputies to make contact with him, according to the report.
Deputies arrived and found Burch crawling out from his hiding spot, the report said. Burch was searched and taken into custody by deputies. During the search, authorities located a beer in his red backpack, deputies said.
Burch is charged with disturbing the peace at a public lodging and disorderly intoxication. He was evicted from his hotel room and banned from Walt Disney World property, the report said.
During his first appearance Tuesday, Burch pleaded no contest to both charges and was sentenced to three days in jail.