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Fake suicide call sends SWAT team on goose chase

By Wesley LeBlanc
Posted 11/20/18

ORANGE PARK – Over 50 Orange Park and Clay County police officers surrounded an Orange Park house Thursday after receiving a falsely-reported incident.

The so-called “swatting” …

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Fake suicide call sends SWAT team on goose chase


Posted

ORANGE PARK – Over 50 Orange Park and Clay County police officers surrounded an Orange Park house Thursday after receiving a falsely-reported incident.

The so-called “swatting” incident, said Orange Park Police Chief Gary Goble, led police to a Wells Landing Drive home after the Clay County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call in which the called reported a suicidal man had killed two people in his home with an AK-47. When police were able to get inside the home, there were greeted by an empty home.

“We believe [the victim] was the victim of what we call swatting where false calls are made to get law enforcement rescue response and of course, there was nothing there,” Goble said.

After a two-hour investigation, police determined there was no suicidal man and no one was killed with an AK-47. They instead determined that this was likely a swatting incident. Prank or not, Goble said police have to take each report seriously which is why the OPPD and CCSO responded to the phone call that tipped them off.

“We take all calls seriously,” Goble said. “A lot of our job is not sexy...we go to a lot of different type calls and we take them all seriously because you just never know. We wouldn’t have called out 50 officers over there if we didn’t take that seriously.”

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team was training not too far away at Cecil Field so they were able to respond quickly.

When police arrived at the residence, they found it locked and no one responded from inside after police arrived and alerted they were on the scene. Goble said officers were able to identify the homeowner and successfully contacted him. Once they contacted the owner, he went to the home and found it surrounded by over 50 officers. He then handed over a house key to the police who entered the home.

“He responded with a key that allowed us to go in and clear the residence,” Goble said. “He was scared, shaking.”

After clearing the residence, police determined that the victim was likely the victim of a swatting incident. While the victim, police and community would like to know who committed this crime, it might be a while until a suspect is named.

“Can't’ get too much into that because...there’s going to be a lot of work,” Goble said. “People doing these swatting calls, they use Trac Fones, computers...they’re very difficult cases to solve, but they can be solved.”

In terms of a motive for this kind of crime, Goble said he wouldn’t even to begin to know what the motive was but hopes that the investigation reveals that. He did say, however, that the person who made the call to CCSO knew who the owner of the residence was, what their address was and more, which is in part why police took the call so seriously.

Goble said he is unsure of how long the investigation could take, but did confirm that the next step in the process is determining the origin of the swatting phone call.

“From this point, we’ve broken down the scene,” Goble said. “Our investigators will begin following up that call to determine where it may have originated from and that’s pretty much what we have at this point.”

On Nov. 14, 25-year-old Tyler Barriss, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty in a swatting incident that that led to the fatal shooting of a man in Kansas and gained national attention. He pleaded guilty to making a false report, cyberstalking and conspiracy related to the swatting prank. He will serve at least 20 years in prison.

“Swatting” involves a person making a phony 911 call to force police to respond with SWAT teams.