GREENFIELD — The call came in Tuesday evening under the “shots fired” category.
The male caller said he not only had shot his mother, but he had pipe bombs and was going to “blow the place up.” The 911 emergency call warranted a SWAT response because of the threat of extreme danger.
But it was all fake, police said less than two hours later.
Investigators from the Greenfield Police Department are still trying to figure out who placed the “swatting” call to the county’s 911 center shortly before 7 p.m. Tuesday evening. The call brought forth the full force of the county’s first-responders, including the Hancock County Joint Tactical SWAT Team, who was within minutes deployed to the 700 block of West Main Street.
“You just don’t know what someone’s motive is this day and age,” Chief Jeff Rasche said. “I’m just thankful for the outcome, very thankful.”
The call prompted a swift response by law enforcement agencies. Officers shut down streets; cleared the area; set up a perimeter and a command center; and assessed the situation as quickly as they could.
No one was injured during the tense callout, which ended when the residents at the address to which police responded emerged from the house, startled but unharmed.
“Swatting,” as these hoaxes are known, are prank calls to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers.
But law enforcement officials are not laughing. The risk of injury to officers and citizens; the time spent; and the cost of resources to taxpayers makes the false call a troubling incident for officials.
“It is unfortunate that someone thinks it is funny or a thrill to call a false report of this nature,” said Matt Holland, Greenfield’s deputy police chief.
Rasche noted technology now allows people to place calls from anywhere and disguise their origin. The call could have been made by kids who found some new technology online. Or it could have been like an incident in Plainfield, Connecticut, in August, when officials learned their swatting call originated in California.
Police departments across the country have had to deal with a rise in swatting incidents in recent years and contend the calls not only waste department resources but also create needlessly dangerous situations.
A California man was sentenced to 20 years in prison in March for phoning a false threat to police in Wichita, Kansas, resulting in the death of an innocent man. In that incident, a man answered the door and was fatally shot on his porch by officers who had surrounded his home after reports that a man had a gun and was holding hostages.
The person who made the call from nearly 1,500 miles away was arrested and sent to prison.
Locally, officials followed procedures and were able to make contact with the residents at the address — which had been provided by the prank caller — shortly after arriving on the scene. They were able to discover the occupants of the house were safe and had no knowledge of the call. Still, at the time, law enforcement had no idea what they were walking into.
“We are completely on guard when we do these types of things,” Rasche said. “We train for it and we plan for these types of events and follow our procedures.”
Emergency reports indicated a man called 911 and said he had shot his mother after she tried to stab him. He said he would shoot anyone who came near the house, the report said. He also told officials he had pipe bombs and was going to blow the house up.
“The three people there were surprised and completely innocent, and that’s makes me most mad,” Holland said. “We’re trained to respond to stressful incidents, but these people, they’ve never had any kind of experience with law enforcement whatsoever.”
As for the lingering questions of who placed the call and why, it hangs heavy with officials. While investigators are looking into the origin of the emergency call, at this time no suspect has been identified.
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