Teen is suspect in fake 911 calls

Georgia boy sought in ‘swatting’ calls to Windsor Locks and police in other states

A suspect in “swatting” calls to police in Connecticut and other states told 911 dispatchers that he had killed his mother, was about to kill his two sisters and would gun down any officers who came to the scene, Windsor Locks police said.

Detective Dan Bontempo said Tuesday that town police will seek the arrest of the Georgia teenager on felony charges. The 15-year-old boy recently was arrested on criminal charges in his home state.

The calls targeting residents in Connecticut, Georgia and Florida were related to insults traded during sessions of the video game Call of Duty, Bontempo said. A similarly motivated call to police in Kansas in 2017 ended with an innocent man’s death.

The call to Windsor Locks dispatch came in March 19 at 4:05 a.m. The caller reported a bloodbath on South Elm Street that he said was about to get much worse. Police, however, were immediately suspicious, in part because the caller butchered the pronunciation of a common last name, Windsor Locks Det. Sgt. Jeff Lampson said.

“It gave us pause,” Lampson said.

Police had to act on the report, so the regional SWAT team and medics rushed to stage near the address the caller gave. A negotiator eventually connected with a 21-year-old man inside the house, and he and his brother walked out with their hands up as police held them at gunpoint, Bontempo said.

The 21-year-old told police that the swatting call likely was retal

iation for trash talk during online gaming sessions. One player in particular had mispronounced his last name, the man said, the same way the emergency dispatcher had noted.

Bontempo’s investigation connected him with the sheriff ’s office in Cherokee County, Georgia. A caller to emergency dispatch there on the same day told the same story of killing his mother, preparing to kill his two sisters and wiping out any cops who came to help.

More than 30 officers responded to the home.

“So, as I open the door to try to figure out what is going on, they get on the horn and they ask me, ‘Sir, could you please put your hands up and walk towards us slowly,’ ” a Georgia man at the targeted address told Fox 5 Atlanta. “And they said, ‘We want to see your hands.’ So, I did exactly that, didn’t know what was going on, and as soon as I got to the end of the driveway, I could see there’s cop cars all lined up our street. They have riot gear, they have shields out, they have guns out and my first reaction is ‘What the heck’s going on?’ ”

“A man came out of the house and looked confused and alarmed. We quickly began to realize this was a swatting situation, a fake call to 911,” Cherokee County Capt. Jay Baker said, according to Fox 5.

Bontempo said he and Cherokee County Sgt. Robert Haugh worked together and eventually pinpointed the prank caller as a 15-year-old Harlem, Georgia boy. The teen also had made an identical call to police in Hillsborough County, Florida, Bontempo said. Fox 5 also reported that police in North Carolina fielded a similar false call.

Swatting calls are a drain on resources and dangerous to both police and the public, Lampson said.

“God forbid there’s a legitimate emergency going on in another location,” he said. “It puts a huge strain on law enforcement and other first responders.”

In 2014, Willimantic police arrested a 14-yearold boy after fielding a hoax call from a person who claimed to have shot his mother inside their home on High Street. The call tied up a dozen police officers and led to lockdowns at Eastern Connecticut State University, Windham High School and Kramer School for several hours before the prank was uncovered.

In 2013, four SWAT teams and dozens of officers, all heavily armed, descended on Central Connecticut State University after New Britain police received what turned out to be false reports of a man carrying a gun and a sword. The school was put on lockdown, classes were canceled for the remainder of the day and students were told to stay in their rooms, away from the windows, with their cellphones on silent or vibrate. A suspect was later arrested.

The most infamous swatting case came in 2017, when police in Wichita, Kansas responded to a bogus call and killed Andrew Finch after an officer said he thought the bewildered 28-year-old was reaching for a weapon as he stepped outside.

Tyler Barriss of Los Angeles, age 26 at the time, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2019 after admitting he made the false call and dozens of others, according to news reports. An Ohio man, Casey Viner, was sentenced to 15 months in prison after he admitted to recruiting Barriss to make the swatting call, authorities have said.

Viner was upset that a Wichita gamer had killed Viner’s in-game character during a Call of Duty session, authorities said. It turned out that the swatters targeted the wrong address; Finch had nothing to do with them or their game.

“Swatting is no prank,” U.S. Attorney Stephen Mcallister said in a news release after Barriss’ sentencing. “Sending police and emergency responders rushing to anyone’s home based on

utterly false information as some kind of joke shows an incredible disregard for the safety of other people.”